An Easter In Georgia
by reallysmallworld
Summary: Darian tried to return to a normal life after her Christmas in Burgess, but when Jack flies back into her life again, will she take up this chance to truly fall in love with him, or will she run again for her own safety? At the same time, Jack must deal with the disapproval of other Immortals as he tries to win her over. (Sequel to A Christmas In Burgess)
1. Chapter 1: Forget About The Boy

**Darian**

I was normal. At least, I was closer to normal than I had ever been before. I went to school, got good grades, and had a few close friends to invite over for movies on my sixteenth birthday. Being the female lead in our school's production of Seussical Jr. was just a bonus to all of this and had come as a welcome surprise, since it had been my first real audition since sixth grade.

Of course, normal was relative (the spider and the fly and whatnot), especially in the theatre program, where it was considered normal for a red-headed senior boy, our resident costumer, to wrap a tape measure around my hips and waist while simultaneously draping me in different colored feather boas. I cringed every so often at his proximity (I had this thing about personal space, you see), and while my best friend Miranda sat in a chair and laughed at my discomfort, she also squeezed in some gentle reminders that this was a necessary evil and that it would all be over soon.

"Soon" ended up being twenty minutes later after Jared had finished taking all of my measurements and explained to me the design of my costume. I was to be dressed modestly in a pale blue dress to contrast with June's (our Mayzie) vibrant red costume. Jared released me to work with June for a while, and Miranda and I walked out to the parking lot together like we did every day after rehearsal, where she would wait with me until my mom picked me up at the usual time and she left to drive herself home, having already gotten her license.

The whole event was very routine, very boring, but it was _normal_ , and for now, that was enough for me. There had been a time just a few weeks before when my life had been routine and boring but slightly less normal, but that could be up for debate because again, normal is so very relative (cats and mice and all that jazz). I still went to school, still got good grades, but I was much quieter and shyer with Miranda being the only person I felt comfortable calling my friend. I never got lead roles because I was too scared to audition, and I had assumed that people hated me because I was too scared to talk to them. I was still very scared sometimes, but something had changed. For me to get outside my comfort zone, it had taken a week with my cousins in Burgess and a Christmas present from a magical boy.

No. No. _No_. He didn't exist.

My mom arrived at her usual time, and I turned to Miranda, saying, "I'll see you tomorrow."

Miranda laughed. "Didn't ya hear? It's actually supposed to snow tomorrow. We might not have school at all!"

"I wouldn't hold my breath," I told her, rolling my eyes to disguise my nervousness. Yes, I had checked the weather this morning and saw the progress of the winter storm that was supposed to descend upon Georgia, but I also knew that it rarely ever snowed in our town, and even when it did, it rarely ever stuck. Even more, I actually didn't want it to snow, which was odd considering it was the one thing I had written down on every Christmas wish list since I was three. Truthfully, I loved the snow. I loved how fresh and clean it made everything look, and I loved how the sun sparkled off of icicles, but now I knew of a certain person who was no doubt in the center of the storm, and I had no desire or intention of running into him again.

There was a time during my two periods of normalcy where my life had definitely not been normal, when I had spent that week in Burgess with my cousin Jamie and met his best friend, who just so happened to be the mischievous Winter Spirit Jack Frost, who took me flying and introduced me to a world of legends and fairies and monsters that tried to destroy my happiness. We laughed. We cried. We…kissed…

That was all behind me now. It was nothing. It never existed.

"Aw, come on! Have a little hope!" Miranda insisted.

"I tried that once," I called over my shoulder as I walked to my mom's car. "It didn't agree with me." I shut the car door behind me.

 **Jack**

 _"I don't want to see you again!"_

My eyes snapped open, and I sat up straight on the tree limb I had been resting on. While I had slept, the snowstorm around me had softened, so to get my mind off my dream, I whipped it up a bit until everything around me blurred into whiteness. Wrapped in my own isolated world of snow and ice, I slumped back against the trunk of the tree.

I was stalling, I knew. Immortals didn't really need sleep, yet I slept anyway, and because I had been dodging the Guardians for a while to take some time off for myself, I never really got dreams, but every time I closed my eyes, I saw the same images over and over again. They made up something that resembled a Nightmare more than a dream, but I knew Pitch was not involved in this in any way because those images weren't just flashes of a dream; they were memories.

I could never forget the way Darian had looked at me that day at the airport. She was so sad, so hurt, so angry, and worst of all, she was so, so afraid. _Afraid of me?_ I wondered constantly. Then, she had left, and although I knew that it was completely irrational, I suddenly felt more alone, more dejected than I had in a very long time.

I spent many nights wondering just what had happened. One minute, everything was going just beautifully. We were happy. The next, well, I don't really know. She just told me that she never wanted to see me again, and coming from the first believer that was around my age (give or take 300 years or so), that stung more than I ever thought it could. Then, she ran. She ran away from me.

Jamie, of course, knew something was wrong with me almost immediately after that morning in the airport, despite my attempts to wear a brave face around him. He asked me if I was alright whenever I smiled, and instead of answering, I would start up another snowball fight. I just couldn't stand to lie to that kid, my first believer, my brother. I couldn't.

Jamie, Mr. Last-Believer-On-Earth, didn't give up so easily, though, and I endured several attempts by him to get me and Darian to talk to each other again. I wanted to. I really did. I wanted to be with her, even just as a friend, but every time we tried, some excuse would pop up, usually something silly or just a very transparent lie, and Darian would be gone before I ever saw her.

I was starting to lose hope when Jamie came up with the brilliant idea of sending her snow on her birthday. She had loved seeing all of it in Burgess because it rarely snowed in her hometown in the South, and we agreed that sending me down to endure the heat to kick up a little Winter weather was the perfect birthday present from the two of us. It had seemed like a great plan at the time, and impulsively, I jumped at the chance to see Darian again. It hadn't occurred to me until just recently that this might not have been the best idea and that instead of bringing her happiness, I might only frustrate her. She had made it very clear that she didn't want to see me anymore, and she was always very strict about people respecting her personal space and privacy.

And so I had ended up in a tree in the middle of nowhere, trying to figure out what I was supposed to do next. It wasn't like I didn't have the time. Darian's birthday wasn't for another two days.

If I went up to her after all these weeks, what would I even say? Should I try to make a joke or just say hello and hope she wouldn't punch me in the face again? Or maybe I should keep it short and simple, say, "Happy Birthday," and fly off.

Even something as simple as that worried me. I might only end up alienating her further by refusing to respect her request. Maybe I just wouldn't appear at all. I could bring the storm, write a birthday message in the frost on her window, and leave before she ever saw me.

Of course, I could always just do nothing and let her be. I could even turn around, redirect the storm, and head back to Burgess. The only problem with that was that running away wouldn't solve anything for either of us.

I couldn't leave things the way they were, with her tragic face burned permanently into my mind while I wondered what I had done wrong. What had I done to make her fear me? I shuddered. If there was anything worse than not being believed in, it was being feared. I remembered a confrontation with Pitch Black almost three years ago where that had come up as an option, and I had decided that it was actually a fate worse than death.

I had to go. I had to do something about this situation, and even if she did hate me for it, I would at least know for sure how she felt, if she was scared or as confused as I was, if she, too, had Nightmares about that day. I hadn't been sure about what we were to each other for a long time, and looking back, Christmas Eve had only complicated things further for us.

I took off in the direction of Darian's hometown, figuring that I would probably make it by the next afternoon. I just had to know. If I couldn't fix the damage between us, I had to at least try and stop it from spreading.

Well, this was going to be fun.

 **Darian**

I got off the school bus and looked up at the grey clouds. They hadn't dissipated all morning, and snow was still in the forecast for the day. I tried to tell myself to calm down. They wouldn't have scheduled school with a winter weather warning if it was serious, right? We'd had threats like this before, and every single time, it either didn't stick or passed right over us. I tried to tell myself that's all it was. I would happen just like it did before.

Of course, before this year, I hadn't personally known the actual Spirit of Winter. I caught myself peering over my shoulder as I walked down the hall to my first class, as if he might just pop out of a classroom or out of a locker or even out of nowhere at all, or worse: what if it ended up being Pitch instead of Jack?

I had made a deal with the bogeyman, though it had felt like a deal with the devil, himself. As long as I pretended that the world of magic didn't exist, that Jack didn't exist, he would spare me endless torments in my Nightmares. He had made it sound so simple: break Jack's heart to save my own, considering that Jack was an Immortal and a true relationship was actually impossible. At the time, I hadn't realized that in breaking Jack's heart, I was breaking my own, creating my own torture. It haunted me every day, and I wondered sometimes if it was worse than Pitch's most malicious Nightmare. I couldn't escape this, not in daylight, and especially not beneath the Man in the Moon's watchful gleam.

I clutched my red coat, dull beneath the dingy fluorescent lighting, and drew it tighter around myself. There seemed to be a certain chill in the air that wouldn't disappear even indoors. The usual hum of conversation in the halls was dimmed as students clamored anxiously around windows, willing snow to fall from the dangerously dark clouds.

I took my seat in first period and realized that I was shivering, and no matter how much I rubbed my arms, the goosebumps would not go away. I wasn't cold; I was frightened.

Alone in the classroom, I prayed that nothing would happen. I prayed for safety. I was terrified to the point of tears, and I knew exactly why. If Jack showed up, I didn't know what to do.

Would Pitch be understanding? After all, it wouldn't be my fault if Jack was being stupid and impetuous again, but Pitch hadn't seemed like the most reasonable being on the planet. My mind drifted back to those awful nights without my permission, when Jack had not been around to protect me and I had been victimized for being his friend, or maybe more than a friend. I wasn't sure.

And how could I get rid of Jack again? If he hadn't listened before, was there anything I could say to get rid of him permanently, and more importantly, would I have the heart to say it? I still saw his eyes, brimming with tears, boring into my own as he tried to figure out if I was lying. The image of his heartbroken face was branded into my mind, forever a reminder of the selfish choice I had made. How could I put myself, put _him_ through all of that again?

The answer really was simple. _I couldn't_.

I just wanted to get through this day without incident. I wanted to wake up the next morning and see that the storm had passed uneventfully. I wanted to put on my costume of normalcy and act like my world wasn't spinning out of control.

I wanted that bell to go ahead and ring already so I could get this over with.

Amazingly, I still jumped at the sound of the bell, even though I had been anxious for it for what felt like eternity. I looked around and realized that I was no longer alone. Other students had joined me while I had been lost in my thoughts, but they were all hushed and staring intently out the window while I made it a point to keep my eyes forward, focusing on a specific smudge on the whiteboard.

I went through the first part of the day mechanically, unaware of anything going on in my classrooms, even ignoring what was being taught. It was funny how all-consuming fear could be, how it could control my actions and my thoughts and make me numb to the rest of the world. Few things broke through my stupor: a school bell, being called upon by the teacher, my lab partner burning out the bottom of a test tube, etc. Besides those few things that jolted me violently back to reality, everything went by in a blur of indistinguishable images.

Before I knew it, it was the middle of the day, and I was sitting next to Miranda in chorus class. I didn't realize she had spoken to me until she snapped her fingers in front of my face.

"What?" I grumbled, surprised and embarrassed at how hostile I sounded. Miranda picked up on it and held up her hands defensively.

"I was just tryin' to tell you happy early birthday. Jeez, someone woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning," she told me.

I pinched the bridge of my nose and sighed sadly. "Sorry. I'm really sorry. I just didn't really sleep at all last night," I admitted quietly. Although I had gotten much better at the whole "making friends" thing, Miranda was still the person I trusted most, and what others may find weird about me, she understood completely.

Her expression softened as she asked, "What's goin' on? I thought you hadn't had too many Nightmares lately."

"I haven't, really." Pitch had said that he might allow me some reprieve now and again, but otherwise, my Nightmares were to continue as normal. So far, as long as I held up my end of the bargain, he held up his. "I've just had a lot to think about."

"Maybe you just need a break or somethin'. I guess this snow day came at a good time for you."

"No," I groaned, shaking my head in my hands. She was trying her best, I knew, but I couldn't really tell her what was wrong without risking looking completely insane, even though she was my best friend. "I really do not want it to snow."

"Why not? I thought you loved it."

"It's just…" I began, fishing for reasons why. "If it snows, we'll have to add on extra rehearsals for Seussical, and on top of that, there will be extra homework, and the roads will be too icy for anyone to come over for my birthday, and let's face it, there's never enough to build a real snowman, but you know every kid in the neighborhood is going to be singing that _Frozen_ song anyway, and –" I cut myself off, realizing that in my haste, I had rambled and probably stuck my foot in my mouth several times. I felt my face burn crimson, but Miranda only raised an eyebrow at me.

"Just calm down, okay? You're over-thinkin' everything. Again." This drew a chuckle out of me. "Look, I'm gonna be at your house on your birthday no matter what the weather, got it? And we can build ourselves a height challenged snowman and scream that song at the top of our lungs." We both laughed at that, but I could sense that Miranda wanted to say more, that she suspected something else was wrong because I was such a terrible liar, but luckily (or unluckily, depending on how you view the situation), she was interrupted by June bursting in dramatically through the chorus room's outside door.

"It's snowing!" she practically screamed. Everyone except me immediately leapt out of their seats and stampeded towards the door. I simply froze (pun completely intended), vaguely aware of Miranda tugging on my arm and leading me out the door. No. This couldn't be happening.

All of the students were dancing around the nearest section of the school's parking lot, stretching out their arms and tongues to catch the faint snowflakes fluttering through the air. I felt them brush my cheeks and melt into something like cold tears on my face. _It won't last_ , I tried to tell myself. _It will pass, just wait and see._

I glanced to the side and saw that wasn't the case. At the edge of the parking lot, the dead brown grass of the front lawn was already spotted with small patches of white. Against all odds, the snow was sticking. Looking up, I saw the delicate, sharp icicles accumulating on tree limbs.

Laughing at the wonder of it all, Miranda spun around to face me, and I watched her smile fade as I found that I could not conceal the horror on my face. I could not dredge up enough wonder or hope or fun to fake even the smallest of smiles. There was only fear. "Darian? Are you okay?" she asked, but her voice felt far away, an echo from a distant world. I felt sick. The air was freezing and made it painful to breathe.

Finally, our teacher herded us back inside. Reluctantly, I sat down, ignoring my heart hammering against my ribs and my mind and muscles screaming at me to run, to get as far away as possible. I had to try very hard not to cry.

The principle's voice came on over the intercom, announcing that school was to be cancelled for the rest of the day. I silently gathered my things to head to the cafeteria and wait for my bus, but Miranda laid a hand on my shoulder before I could walk out the door. "I could drive you home, ya know? Spend the night maybe?"

"No," I said too quickly. If anything happened, no matter who showed up, Miranda couldn't be around for that. Miranda looked a little hurt. I tried to make something up that sounded reasonable. "I just don't want you to get stranded at my house or anything. Maybe tomorrow, okay?"

"See ya tomorrow, then," she replied.

The bus ride home was one of the most unpleasant I had ever experienced, and as far as bus rides go, that's really saying something. As usual, there were middle-schoolers screeching and seat hopping and high-schoolers shouting across the bus at each other, and then there was me leaning my head against the chilled window and tapping my leg nervously to the beat of my heart. At one point, I tried humming some of my solos in _Seussical_ to try and calm myself down, and it worked up until we pulled into my neighborhood and I caught sight of my house.

It was snowing heavier when I got off the bus. The flakes were much larger. I had to force myself not to run into my house to escape all of the snow, knowing better than to tempt fate with all of the slippery patches of ice around. After what felt like an eternity, I climbed the steps to my front porch and pulled on the door, only to find that it was locked. A neon pink sticky note that had obviously fallen from the door was now stuck in a spider-web by my shoes. I knelt down to read it.

"Went to the store, just in case," I read aloud. I groaned inwardly, conflicted as to whether or not that was a good thing. With my mom at the store and my dad at work, they wouldn't be around in case something did happen, but what if something happened simply because I was all alone? I sighed heavily, knowing that there was nothing I could do about it at this point, and unlocked the door with the hidden key underneath the mat.

The house was cold, and I saw that the door to the back porch had been left open for the cat to wander in and out of. I checked and made sure that she wasn't outside before closing the door and turning on the thermostat. I sat on the couch and dumped my backpack on the floor beside it. Absentmindedly, I shed my shoes and my coat, and when I was done with that, I simply stared straight ahead, twisting a lock of hair around my finger as I wondered what I should do next. I contemplated turning on the television for a distraction, but in the end, I remained consumed in my own thoughts. Besides, the ticking of the clock was already loud enough.

Eventually, I lay down and closed my eyes, but I didn't dare try to go to sleep. There was no way of knowing what lurked in the shadows of my mind at that moment, and I didn't even have to go that far to see Jack's face. He was right there, as always, right when I closed my eyes, and I only wished I could make him understand. I only wished that I didn't have to hurt him. I only wished that he would just go away.

I couldn't have been twenty minutes before my cat was pawing at my face, begging to be let out on the porch where her litterbox was. Slowly, I dragged myself off the couch, rubbing at my weary eyes as she meowed at me to move faster. I watched her circle around my feet and wind her way between my legs, and I laughed as she flinched at the cold air when I opened the door before tentatively stepping outside, jumping whenever her tail brushed against a patch of snow. I smiled at her, and before closing the door, I looked up to see how the snow blanketed my yard like it hadn't in ages, and only then did I realize how much my timing sucked.

I caught sight of him just as he was landing on the railing, looking just as surprised to see me. He said my name, but something inside me seemed broken, and I couldn't hear it. I could only stand there and stare at the person whose image I had just been grieving.

He looked absolutely the same. His hair and smile were the same brilliant white as the snow behind him, and his eyes were still unnaturally blue and still looked at me in that completely beautiful way that made me uncomfortable. He even wore the same blue hoodie and clutched the same twisted staff.

My mouth fell open, and I felt his name on my lips, but I couldn't make a sound.

Jack Frost.

 **(Hey! Long time no see! Welcome to the first chapter of the requested sequel to A Christmas In Burgess! Many thanks to those who have followed this story from its humble beginnings and have encouraged me along the way, and welcome to any new readers! I hope you like it! A few things about this story: We will still get points of view from Jack and Jamie, but most of this story will focus on Darian, since I see this as more of her journey into the ROTG world, and to those of you who have complained about the style of the story in the past [you know who you are], I will say that I considered switching because I admit that there are flaws to it, but for the sake of continuity, I decided to stick with it. For the next couple of weeks, I will try to update this story every other week until we catch up to where I have written ahead, at which point there will be a hiatus as I take time to write the next couple of chapters. As for my Frozen Family fans, fear not! The story will begin updating again next week and will continue every other week until its completion. That's all for now! Be sure to favorite, follow, and review, and Happy New Year!)**


	2. Chapter 2: C'mon Darian

**Jack**

I had found her address easily enough once I hit town, and I hadn't known what to expect, but I certainly hadn't expected her to be standing outside on the porch when I got there, certainly not with the cold weather, and yet, there she was. I had been hoping for a little bit more time to figure out what I was going to do when I saw her, and I didn't know what to say, so of course, I said the first stupid thing that popped into my head.

"Darian," I said dumbly, landing on the railing of her back porch. She stood completely still, her blue eyes wide and fixated on me and her hand resting threateningly on the doorknob, ready to shut me out. She was just as beautiful as ever standing there, the wind tossing loose strands of her thick, dark hair away from her face. She said nothing, and I wondered if she even heard me. I kept trying to think of something else to say, but I was still at a loss for words, so I lowered myself off the railing to step closer to her. Something must have clicked inside her then because all of a sudden, she hastily backed away from the door, retreating from me. "I, uh…"

"You need to leave," she said in a wavering voice before I could form a complete thought.

I stepped forward again so that I stood in the doorway. "What?" I asked, flustered.

"Go. Now!" She shuffled backwards a few more steps. I couldn't move, though. I was too shocked at the amount of fear in her eyes when she looked at me and how her voice shook when she spoke. When I didn't react, she cupped a hand over her mouth in disbelief, muttering, "This isn't happening. This can't be happening."

"Darian, what's going on?" I reached out for her, but she shook her head and continued backing into the living room.

"Get out! You're not supposed to be here!"

I was still concerned, but suddenly, I felt very frustrated. She kept repeating stuff like that like a broken record, her face burning crimson, but she never gave me a reason behind it. "All I wanted was to bring you a birthday present!" I huffed.

"Snow? You brought me snow for my birthday?" she said, sounding half in hysterics.

"You seemed to like it back in Burgess. In fact, you were the one complaining about how I never brought you very much snow. I thought it was a good idea," I explained, still trying to approach her.

"You thought it was a good idea to give me a present that just so happens to freeze the roads so that none of my friends can come over for my birthday? Yeah, Jack. That's a fabulous idea," she spat, still trying to run away from me, tears in the corners of her eyes. Her face was very red now, and I noticed that she couldn't look me in the eye. Something was wrong. She was hiding something, and again, despite being concerned about it, it frustrated me beyond words, and somehow, I found myself falling into some semblance of our rhythm from before, when we could bicker over the stupidest things.

"Well, excuse me," I snapped back. "I thought we were friends."

"No!"

"Really? Then, what are we? Because to tell you the truth, I've been confused about that since-!"

"No!" she interrupted in a warning tone that told me I should really know better. But I didn't, so I kept pushing her, walking towards her as she stumbled backwards.

"Since that night under the mistletoe!"

"Nothing happened!" she tried, and I couldn't hide how much that hurt.

"Nothing? I cared about you, Darian! You said you felt the same way, and then you turned around and said you never wanted to see me again!"

"Jack, don't," she begged, having finally backed into the wall with nowhere else to run.

"You left with hardly a reason why, and you've avoided giving me a straight answer all these weeks, and I just didn't know what to do about it! Especially after you ki-"

Suddenly, Darian reached out and slapped me, stunning me into silence. _Right. Personal space_ , I remembered.

She shook her hand furiously afterward, showing that it stung her more than it did me, but it felt as if she truly had wounded me. "Shut. Up." Her voice was tight with tears. When I didn't move or say anything else, she pushed past me to collapse on the couch, where she hid her face in her hands and tried to compose herself.

Eventually, she inhaled deeply, swiping furiously at the tears on her face. I knew how she hated crying in front of people, and I felt a twinge of guilt for forcing her into this situation, though I still couldn't understand why she was reacting this way. "What can I do, Jack? What can I say to make you leave me alone?" she cried pitifully.

I considered going over to sit by her, wanting to comfort her despite how mad I was, but I thought better of it and stayed standing right where I was, only turning slowly so that I could face her fully. "The least you could do is tell me why," I said, and she hung her head, her dark hair tumbling over in waves to conceal her face as she did.

Finally, she looked up at me, and I saw something spark in her eyes – the truth. "I never wanted to hurt you. I swear, it's the last thing I would ever want to do. It's just…" I watched helplessly as suddenly and without warning, she shut down again. "I don't know," she muttered, shaking her head.

"Darian, please." I just wanted her to look me in the eyes and tell me the truth.

She shrugged, her eyes on the floor. "It's just as I told you, Jack. I cared about you. I really did, and…I still do," she admitted shakily. "There's just no hope for anything between us, not with you being an Immortal and all, so I just thought it would be best to end it right then and there."

"I don't understand," I told her. "Why can't we at least be friends? I mean, it's tearing Jamie apart that we-"

"Don't you dare bring Jamie into this!" she warned, looking up for a brief second to shoot me a fearsome glare, and I quieted, allowing her to continue. "That's just too painful, Jack, not to mention cruel. Why would I want that hope dangled in front of me like a carrot on a string, knowing that I can never have it? I just thought it would be easier for me to-" Darian suddenly stopped, her eyes widening at whatever she was about to say. For a moment, she didn't even dare to breathe.

"Easier for you to what?"

"It was just easier," she sighed, trying to drop the conversation.

"No, you were about to say something else."

"Jack, just forget about it."

"What were you about to say?" I asked.

"It's too cruel!"

"Darian!"

"Jack!"

"Tell me!" I insisted, and angrily, Darian finally complied.

"It was easier to pretend that you never existed!"

I knew she regretted it as soon as the words left her lips, but they couldn't be taken back. They hung there in the heavy silence between us. She cupped a hand over her mouth the way she did every time she knew she had said something wrong or hurtful, and seeing that, I couldn't find it in myself to be angry with her. Besides, I was too shocked to really feel anything at that point.

I couldn't hide how much the words stung, though. It was suddenly hard for me to breathe, my head spun, and my vision swam as I felt tears burn at the corners of my eyes. To hear her say that, to hear _any_ believer say that was a blow greater than anything I had endured before. After all those years of feeling unwanted and alone, hearing someone wish that I didn't exist hurt more than I could have imagined.

"Oh," I finally breathed, swallowing a lump in my throat. I had to look away from her, away from her apologetic expression.

"Jack, I…" she began, her voice thick. "I didn't mean it like that."

"Like what?" I said bitterly. "I'm not aware of any other meaning to that."

"I…I…" She grabbed the coat beside her on the couch and hugged it close to her, trying to find some comfort in it. Finally, she let out one soft sob, and when I looked at her, I saw her shoulders shaking and tears running down her cheeks that she desperately tried to wipe away with her coat. "I'm so sorry! I told you it was too cruel, but you didn't listen! I told you to go away, but you didn't listen! The last thing I ever wanted was to hurt you or anybody else or myself, but look where we are now." She buried her face in the red coat, trying to compose herself, trying to hide how much I knew she hated herself in that moment.

"Just go, Jack," she mumbled. "Just leave me alone and let me pretend this was all a Nightmare."

I stumbled at yet another blow. Darian's eyes peeked over the edge of her coat, wide as she realized that she had stuck her foot in her mouth yet again, but she didn't apologize this time. "A Nightmare?" I repeated. I knew how bad Darian's Nightmares could be. I knew that they had tormented her all her life, depriving her of rest and of peace, and I knew that she hated them. I knew that she had even met the bogeyman himself, face to face. Calling me a Nightmare was one of the most despicable insults imaginable, especially coming from her. "Do you really want me gone so badly?"

Darian suddenly looked away, staring down at her socks and nodding. She was lying, but that didn't make me feel any better. There was just something so wrong about all of this.

"Fine," I huffed, feeling colder than usual. "But not yet. I can't leave yet. I have to stay a little longer, and it's not for my sake, or even for your birthday; it's for Jamie." Her eyes snapped back to me at the mention of her cousin's name, sharp and angry through the tears and redness. " _He's_ the one who suggested I come down here, hoping that we might all be friends again, or at least, not hate each other, so don't force me to fly back to him and say that we spent the whole time yelling at each other."

I watched what little of Darian's face that was visible and saw that it had become as red as her coat in shame. "Please, at least give me something good to tell him," I begged. Darian dropped her coat in defeat, and I saw her full tear-stained face. She was exhausted, tired of yelling, tired of feeling, tired of hiding whatever it was this time from me.

"I don't know," she whispered.

"Well, come find me when you do." I took my time in walking over to the back porch, trying to hide how each step away from her was more agonizing than the last. "Just remember that Jamie was not only my first believer; he was yours, too." With that, I flew out the door, leaving it wide open behind me. After a few seconds, though, the anger faded, and I descended into a nearby tree, feeling weary, as well. That certainly could have gone better.

I looked back at Darian's house, watching as she closed the door behind me, lingering by the glass pane and looking mournfully out at the snow. She stood there for a very long time, completely motionless, and I knew that she was thinking, disappearing into her own mind as she was often known to do, and I knew that she usually did this when she was avoiding something about the real world, usually something that frightened her.

Was it me? Did I scare her? Was all of this really no better than one of her Nightmares?

Not knowing these things frustrated me, and I threw a couple of snowballs at some unsuspecting birds to let off some steam. I wasn't going to leave until I got to the bottom of whatever was going on here.

 **Darian**

After Jack left, I stood by the door for a very long time, staring outside but hardly even seeing anything, partly due to the tears distorting my vision. I felt tired, overwhelmed, and utterly defeated. Sure, I had gotten him to leave me alone for the time being, but ultimately, I had failed. I couldn't do it. I couldn't stand breaking anyone's heart again.

But I had given it my best shot. And I knew I had hurt him.

I hated myself in that moment. My insides felt like garbage, and I bit down hard on my tongue, disgusted at what I had said to him while trying to push him away. I had said awful words, cruel words, and looking back at when I had said them, I hadn't felt like myself at all. I wasn't that kind of person. I would rather keep silent forever than say anything like that.

I concluded that it was all this fear. I was letting it take over my life, letting it dictate what I did and change who I was, but I couldn't stop. Fear had this funny way of latching onto me, like the roots of a weed in a garden, and the more I fed it, the stronger it got. I couldn't uproot it now no matter how hard I tried. It was hopeless.

It must have been several minutes before I was jolted out of my thoughts and self-loathing by the door suddenly opening. I jumped and whirled around, half-expecting to see Jack or Pitch or some other Nightmare staring me down, but it turned out to be only my mother coming back from the grocery store. I gave a shaky sigh of relief.

"How was school today?" she asked, dropping grocery bags in the floor by the pantry. I walked over to help her put everything away.

"We didn't do much," I told her as we emptied the bags and re-stocked the kitchen. "Everyone was pretty distracted by the weather, and then we got let out early."

"And just in time, it seems. There are reports coming in from all over of school buses getting stuck in the snow right now."

"Wow," I said, not paying too much attention as I mechanically put things away. I had exhausted all emotion for the day.

"Your father should be home soon, at least. He called earlier saying he was stuck in traffic, but he was almost here. What do you say we fix some hot chocolate, light the fireplace, and watch a movie or something?"

"Sounds good," I replied, my voice hollow.

My mother, who knew me too well, became concerned by my tone (or lack thereof) of voice and stopped putting groceries away for a moment to really look at me. "Are you alright?" she inquired.

I grabbed a bag of frozens and moved away from the pantry to the freezer to avoid eye-contact as I gave an incredibly forced, "Yeah, I'm fine. Why do you ask?"

My mom gave a shrug and continued working. "You just sounded a bit depressed is all."

I peeked out from behind the freezer door and offered her what I knew had to be the most pathetic excuse for a smile. "I'm just tired, I guess," I sighed, which wasn't exactly a lie. A part of me wondered when I had resorted to telling half-truths to everyone in my life. "It must be the weather." Yet another half-truth. It seemed as though I were living a half-life.

"Must be," my mother conceded. "My knee's been acting up all day because of it."

I had to give a small chuckle at that. My mom was always complaining about her knee, saying that it could predict the weather with complete accuracy, and usually, I believed her. She could tell when a thunderstorm was on its way hours before the Weather Channel, or maybe it was all just coincidence.

Speaking of coincidence, the phone rang right as we emptied the last bag of groceries. Mom went to answer it while I started gathering things to make hot chocolate. A moment later, my mother came back into the kitchen, holding the phone out to me, saying, "It's for you." I took the phone from her, and we traded places.

"I saw on the news that you're finally getting some snow down there!" exclaimed Jamie's voice on the phone. I didn't know whether to laugh or roll my eyes, so I settled on a combination of the two, though the laugh came out much more bitter than I had intended it to. Before I replied, I made sure to walk all the way to the study and close the door behind me for some privacy, wanting to avoid the back porch as much as possible, which is where I would usually go.

"I hear you had a hand in that," I grumbled in response.

"So you've already seen Jack?"

"Pretty much."

"How's everything going?"

I sighed and pinched the bridge of my nose, wondering how to handle this best. "Look, Jamie. The thought was sweet and all, but Jack and I…" I hesitated, not knowing what else to say.

"What? What's going on?" he asked.

I couldn't tell him that I didn't appreciate his gift of snow, that I would give anything never to see his best friend ever again, and I certainly couldn't tell him why. I covered the mouthpiece and heaved a heavy sigh before continuing. "Nothing, Jamie. It's fine. I'm fine. Everything's fine."

There was a pause before Jamie said, "You really are the absolute _worst_ liar."

"So I've been told," I replied.

"You really aren't going to tell me what's been up with you lately, are you?"

"I don't know what you mean," I said sarcastically, figuring that he wouldn't buy it either way.

"That's what I thought."

"I'm sorry, Jamie. I'm just…dealing with a lot of things right now. That's all." More half-truths.

"Okay. Just know that I will be monitoring facebook, and if there aren't any pictures posted of you in the snow within the next twenty-four hours, I will be deeply insulted," he joked.

"Duly noted," I said, unable to hold back a small laugh.

"And Darian?"

"Hmm?"

"Say 'hi' to Jack for me."

It was a long time before a found the voice to reply, "I will."

"Happy birthday, Darian!"

"Thanks," I said with a smile before hanging up.

I slowly made my way back to the kitchen, where I handed the phone back to my mother as she handed me a warm mug of hot chocolate. Dad came home not too long after, and as promised, we lit the fireplace and popped in a movie, but I couldn't remember which, considering I paid little to no attention to it the entire time. I was lost in thought, alternating between staring blankly at the screen, my now empty mug, and the snow-covered window. Before I knew it, the movie was over, and we all retired to our rooms for the night.

Numbly, I changed into some cozy pajamas in my room before wandering back downstairs once I knew my parents were asleep. I grabbed a small blanket and curled up on the couch on the end closest to the darkened fireplace, knowing that I would most definitely not be sleeping that night, and for whatever reason, I felt much safer downstairs by the back porch than I did watching the snow from my own bedroom, and so I sat there for hours on end, staring at the fat snowflakes drifting past and retreating into my own thoughts.

Both Jack and Jamie had a point. I couldn't push one away without also alienating the other. They were close enough to be brothers, and that was a bond that wasn't going away anytime soon, at least, not in Jamie's lifetime. Losing Jack was already more pain than I was willing to bear, and losing Jamie after finally reconnecting after all these years was not something I was entirely sure that I would survive. At the very least, I had to give Jack something good to relay back to Jamie about his time in Georgia.

But what of Pitch?

As if merely thinking about him could conjure him out of thin air, like something from a _Goosebumps_ movie, I felt the need to suddenly glance around at my surroundings, making sure that the menacing shadows held nothing of substance that I should rightfully be afraid of. Seeing nothing but unable to shake the paranoid sensation of being watched, I clutched my blanket tighter and returned to my thoughts.

How could I get away with this without bringing down his wrath upon myself? The simple answer was that I couldn't, unless I wanted to count on dumb luck, but since when was that ever on my side?

Outside, for one brief moment, the snow stopped. The clouds shifted, and the room slowly became brighter, the shadows in the corners fading away. I watched through the window as the moon came into view, casting light right where I sat.

Curious, I let the blanket slip from my shoulders and stood, keeping my eyes on the window. I moved to the door to the back porch, and I thought I must be crazy because I could have sworn that the moonbeam followed me, and once again, the term "lunatic" popped into my mind. I reached out to open the door but hesitated for a moment with my hand on the knob before finally throwing it open.

I shivered as the freezing air swirled around me, but despite that, despite my breath coming out in clouds, despite the fact that I was barefoot, I stepped out onto the snow covered porch. My yard had never looked so clean with its fresh blanket of snow. The world gleamed silver in the moonlight, almost glowing with its own sort of magic. Truly, it was breathtaking.

I turned my gaze from the land to the sky and back on the moon, and I wondered if the Man in the Moon was actually staring back at me, like in that poem my mother used to recite to me when I was younger. I leaned against the railing and gave a nervous laugh, still unable to shake the feeling of being watched. I shook my head, pushed my hair back, and spoke.

"This is crazy. I mean, you know how crazy this is, right? Jeezum crow, I'm talking to the flipping moon." Silence greeted my words, so I took that as my cue to continue.

"I don't know how this works, okay? Jack said you never really communicated directly. I guess it would be kind of hard, all things considered. I just didn't know where else to turn. You seem to be fairly omniscient, so I'm just going to assume you already know what's going on, and I figure that you're the foremost expert on all things Immortal, so is there anything you can do to help?"

No answer.

"Okay, is there anything I can do? Can you at least tell me that?"

No answer. Again. I wondered if maybe I already knew what to do, and I just didn't want to face it, and that was why he refused to answer. No, that was crazy. I couldn't expect the moon to simply start talking to me. Maybe it was only an Immortal thing.

"Of course not. Right. Because that would be too easy. Because you are the ever cryptic Man-in-the-flipping-Moon, and there's probably some lesson here I need to figure out on my own to prove that I'm 'worthy' or to 'find myself.' Am I right?" I huffed, knowing full well that my outburst wouldn't solve anything, but either way, it felt good to lay all of this out in the open for once.

With a sigh, I continued. "Look, I just want out. Obviously, I'm not strong enough to deal with any of this. I just want it to be over. I want to stop hurting people, but I just can't. I just can't. I don't know if you even know I exist, but thanks for listening, or whatever."

As if on cue, the moon slid back behind the clouds, and a light snowfall started back up again. I sent up a silent prayer that Jack hadn't been around to hear any of that, but with how my luck was going, I wouldn't have been surprised. Without another word, I slipped back inside, wrapped myself back in my blanket, and watched the snowflakes drift down.

I wasn't sure if I felt better or worse.

 **(Hooray for actually updating on time! I'd also like to take this chance to mention that last week was the two year anniversary of when I first posted A Christmas In Burgess, and on a related note, I feel like I should remind everyone that to keep continuity straight, this story takes place in early 2014. You probably don't really care about that, but I thought I'd just throw that out there. I'm not sure I know what to say about this chapter, but I'm interested to hear all of your reactions. As always, remember to favorite, follow, and review!)**


	3. Chapter 3: Meet Mr Snow

**Darian**

I had to have been sitting on that couch all night long because the next thing I knew, the sky outside was steadily growing lighter, but there was no sign of the sun through the grey clouds just yet. At some point in the night, it had completely stopped snowing, but I couldn't recall exactly when that had happened. Perhaps I had actually drifted off to sleep once or twice, or maybe I had just gotten too lost in thought to remember. Everything after my "conversation" with the Man in the Moon all blended into a tired blur.

At the very least, I had not experienced many Nightmares, nor had the bogeyman decided to show his face. Maybe I had gotten lucky, for once in my currently miserable life. Maybe he didn't know, and maybe I could ride this whole mess out safely and maybe get on with my life as soon as possible.

That was a lot of maybe's.

Before too long, I was being bothered by the cat, who figured that dawn was an appropriate time to demand service of its human slaves. It leapt onto the end of the couch and meowed loudly, but for what, I couldn't tell. I groaned and stretched, wincing at the ache in my muscles after sitting in the same position for so long. The cat only grew more impatient and howled again. "Alright, already! I'm up!" I retorted, finally getting to my feet. Seemingly satisfied, it hopped off the couch and ran off.

I decided to go ahead and get ready for the day, despite the fact that I had no plans whatsoever. I found a cozy sweater and some leggings and laid them out at the foot of my bed before starting a nice shower. It was just what I needed, something to help me unwind and sort through all of my tumultuous thoughts and feelings from yesterday.

Needless to say, the shower took much longer than usual.

Feelings were like children, in a way, or so I figured. They were messy things, never wanting to do what they're told and always running off like mad the second you turn your attention away from them. It was very difficult to shove them back in their rightful place, which at this moment, was a tiny box in the back corner of my mind where I kept all the dark, unruly things. They refused to go quietly.

Fear pretty much refused to go into the box at all, so I gave up on it. Besides, I couldn't help that I was scared. It was only normal to be scared in this situation, caught in a deadly choice between two types of endless torture, a rock and a hard place. Then, of course, there was the way I felt about Jack. Right now, I was angry at him for sure, but there was also something else. There was always something else.

No, it was nothing. Into the box it went.

When I at last emerged from the shower, and everything was sorted into some semblance of order, all that was left was exhaustion. Wrapped in only my towel, I flopped face-first onto my bed and didn't move for a very long time. I was so, so tired. I laid there for so long that I eventually heard my parents wake up and start fixing breakfast, and I figured that I might as well finish getting dressed. I slipped into my warm sweater and brushed my teeth and still-wet hair, tying the latter into a loose bun at the base of my neck to keep it from soaking my back until it dried. I didn't put on any makeup, though. It seemed frivolous since I had no plans whatsoever of heading out.

My mom smiled at me when I came down, unaware of the fact that I had been up all night. My dad had settled into the recliner and had turned on Sports Center. The fireplace was lit, and the cat was finally content in curling up on the rug in front of it. I took a seat on the couch, and after a moment or two, my mother came in, handing both me and my dad a plate of eggs and bacon before sitting next to me, and we all sat in front of the television in comfortable silence, even though I personally had no idea what the reporters were talking about. The scene was so tranquil, so normal that I nearly forgot anything troubling me, "nearly" being the operative word.

The scene didn't last forever. Before too long, there was a knock on the door, and since I was already up to put away my plate, I went to answer it. As I opened the door, Miranda burst into the house, wrapping me in a hug and yelling, "Surprise!" She released me after a moment, but before I could ask why she was here, she continued talking, walking down the hall as she did and shedding her scarf, hat, and heavy coat. "Have you seen how much snow is out there? It's amazing! Had a heck of a time convincin' my mom to let me out of the house, though. Kept goin' on about the roads bein' frozen and all. They weren't actually that bad, not that you would know from the way she was bi – oh, hey Mr. and Mrs. Bennett!"

"Good morning, Miranda," my mom greeted sweetly, unfazed by Miranda's sudden appearance. I, on the other hand, was still somewhat in shock.

"Not that I don't appreciate the visit or anything, but what are you doing here?" I asked as she haphazardly tossed her winter wear at the base of the stairs, completely at home in our house after years of dropping by.

"There was no way I was gonna miss out on your birthday because of a snowstorm, of all things!" she exclaimed.

"My birthday's not until tomorrow," I reminded her, but she only shrugged. It took me a second to catch on. "Are you spending the night?"

"Duh."

It wasn't like she hadn't done this before. Miranda tended to be a bit spontaneous and often forgetful of trivial things like calling ahead. Over the years, my family had become accustomed to her randomly staying over, occasionally for days at a time, only because she felt like it, and we usually enjoyed her company.

Besides, she technically did tell me that she was coming over yesterday.

This time, though, I was absolutely horrified as all of the "what-ifs" ran through my brain. What if Jack flew by, and I had to explain why I was talking to air? What if Pitch found out that I had spoken to Jack and came to exact revenge? What if he went after Miranda, as well? It occurred to me that it wasn't safe for anyone to be around me right then. I was nothing more than a ticking time bomb, ready to go off at any second.

I must have blanked out there for a second because Miranda began waving her hand in front of my face. "Earth to Darian!" she called. "Did I come at a bad time?"

"No!" I said too quickly, but it wasn't like I could tell her that the bogeyman was out to get me. Miranda was suspicious of my response, but she let it slide.

"Alright. Just give me a minute to warm up, and then, I'll go grab my things. Hey! You should come out with me, and we can mess around in the snow while it's fresh!" Miranda gave a big grin and stared down at me expectantly, but unlike before, I didn't answer right away.

After a moment of hesitation, I replied, "I'm not sure I want to go outside." Miranda's jaw dropped in shock, and I quickly tried to cover it up. "I mean, I kind of felt like staying inside today."

Miranda continued to gape at me. "But it's snow, Darian! What could be more perfect on your birthday than snow? I thought you loved the snow!"

"I do, but - !"

"Don't you wanna build a snow - ?"

"No! I mean, I'm just tired. That's all." I looked down at my feet at the half-truth. Not surprisingly, Miranda caught on.

"Isn't that a constant state of being for you?" she asked.

I chuckled and shrugged. "It would seem so."

She laughed with me, and after our giggles settled, she thought for a moment before asking, "Well, what do you wanna do?" I made a face, not knowing what to say. On any normal day, I would love nothing more than to enjoy the rare snowfall, but that was not going to happen as long as…well, it wasn't ever going to happen, now. I wasn't quite sure what else I could do.

"Netflix binge?" I suggested after a moment. I didn't have a Netflix account, but I knew that Miranda did. She had tried countless times to drag me down into the "Superwholock" fandom with her. At the very least, I found Sherlock enjoyable.

"Sounds good to me!" she said before challenging me to a race up the stairs, and that was how we started watching and singing along to a Disney movie marathon while laying across my bed that lasted until late afternoon. We were well into _Hercules_ when I noticed that Miranda had completely lost interest in Megara singing "I Won't Say I'm In Love" and was staring longingly out the window, casting pointed glances at me every once in a while and heaving dramatic sighs.

I paused the movie and rolled over so that I could face her properly. "Is there something that you'd like to share with the rest of the class, Miranda?" I inquired.

Miranda sat up and gave me a pleading look. "There's still a _lot_ of snow out there," she whined.

"Of course there is," I said, matter-of-factly. "It's been below freezing for most of the day."

"Oh, c'mon Darian! Can't we please go outside?" she begged, rocking back and forth in a way that shook the entire mattress.

I sheepishly looked away from her, finding a spot on the carpet to stare at, instead. "I'd really rather not."

"Why not?"

I opened my mouth before realizing that I couldn't give her a straight answer, and I closed it almost immediately. I felt my face grow hot in shame, so I turned away from her in a feeble attempt to hide it, sitting up straight at the edge of the bed with my back facing her and my feet dangling just above the floor.

A moment passed before Miranda spoke again. "Okay, I still need to grab my stuff, and if you don't come outside with me, I'm goin' to sit here and sing _Frozen_ songs until you finally do." I could almost feel her teasing stare boring through my back, and I could easily envision her trademark mischievous smile in my mind's eye.

Strangely enough, it reminded me of Jack. He and Miranda would be good friends.

No. Wrong. Stop. I shouldn't tempt fate like that, but Miranda was already breaking out into a verse of "Do You Wanna Build A Snowman," and I wasn't sure if I could stand listening to that for the next hour or so. Miranda certainly had the lung capacity to keep going that long.

Maybe just a few minutes wouldn't hurt.

"Fine! I'll go!" I finally relented. Miranda threw her hands up and her head back and cheered, only for her to lose her balance and almost roll right of the side of the bed. Despite the gravity of my current situation, I had to stifle a laugh as I stood and stretched after being immobile for several hours. I searched around for my red coat before remembering that I had left it downstairs on the couch during my run-in with Jack just the day before.

Remembering that disaster caused me to hesitate again, for surely, he was waiting for me just outside, waiting for me to make some sort of decision. My heart skipped a beat in fear, and my lungs refused to work correctly for a couple of seconds, but I tried to force myself past the sudden panic attack so as not to alert Miranda. I made myself move at a steady, if not slow, pace as I grabbed my scarf, hat, gloves, and boots before heading downstairs, Miranda hopping about impatiently behind me.

My mom had retired to her bedroom while my dad had moved to the couch and was using the day off from work to catch up on shows on the DVR that my mom didn't necessarily enjoy. He happened to be sitting on top of my coat, and we spent several minutes bickering playfully over whether or not he would shift and let me have it. After all, I had neglected to return it to its proper place, choosing instead to leave it on the couch where it would no doubt be sat upon. Eventually (and unfortunately, in my case), I won out, though my dad still made me work for it, only scooting over slightly so that I had to pull as hard as I could to yank it free, and while I was at it, he had me carry my backpack all the way back upstairs so that it wasn't cluttering the family room.

After trudging back up and down the stairs, I joined Miranda in pulling on our winter wear. She was done in what seemed like a matter of seconds, and even though I had gotten my boots, hat, and gloves on rather quickly, I began fumbling with the buttons on my coat, which was how I realized that despite the warmth of my extra layers, I was shaking an awful lot. Thankfully, Miranda was too impatient to notice, and she took me by the elbow as soon as I finished with the final button, leaving me very little time to grab my scarf before I was dragged out the front door.

I managed to shake myself loose on the porch so that I could turn and close the door behind me, and when I looked back at Miranda, I saw that she had already slipped on a patch of ice on the driveway and had fallen flat on her back, but she was laughing all the same. I chuckled along with her and desperately wanted to run off and join in her fun.

Several seconds passed, but I didn't move. I couldn't move.

Miranda was busy trying to stumble to her feet after her fall, so she didn't notice the blatant look of fear on my face as I gazed out at the endless stretch of snow-covered everything in front of me, a picture straight out of a storybook. I was terrified to step into the picture, though, terrified to even touch the harmless white powder, as if it were really a secret poison. I swallowed hard as I forced myself down the porch steps, but I hesitated again before stepping out into the yard. I stared at the toes of my boots for the longest time, daring them to move, but I was so frozen in fear that I even neglected to breathe, a fact which was suddenly remembered when a snowball crashed into my face, and I found myself gasping for air.

"Come on!" Miranda insisted, already prepping another snowball for an attack. I dodged her next hit and forced a laugh to cover up my strange behavior before launching myself into the yard and running after her, hastily packing a snowball to toss at her, which hit her squarely in the back, a fact I was proud of.

We ran around to the back of the house, where a section of my yard dropped off in a small hill. Miranda snatched the lid from the top of our trashcan and used it as a makeshift sled. (Since it rarely snowed where we lived, we didn't own any actual sleds.) As she sped off down the slope to the backyard, I grabbed the top of the recycling bin and chased after her. I took the exact same path as her but ended up going faster since she had flattened over this section of snow in her descent, so we collided at the bottom, collapsing into a tangle of limbs, lids, and laughter. I shook the snow from my hair, which was steadily falling loose from its bun, only to roll over and lay back down in it again to make a snow angel, my earlier worries almost completely forgotten. That was what was so special about Miranda: she made even the worst things seem like nothing.

Miranda joined me in making snow angels, and we did that for a few minutes without talking, but of course, that didn't last. Once that task became too boring for her, Miranda rolled over to face me, saying, "Hey, Darian?"

"What?"

"Do you wanna build a – " she began to sing.

"Oh, shut up!" I squealed, sitting up and throwing a handful of snow in her face.

She shook it off and sat up, as well, laughing until she couldn't breathe. "I'm serious, though," she said after catching her breath. "There's plenty of snow around."

I shrugged because as long as we were out here, I might as well enjoy myself while it lasted. I could lock myself in my room and wallow in fear and self-loathing later, when Miranda was gone and safe and unable to question my actions.

We hauled ourselves to our feet, trampling our poor snow angels in the process, and got straight to work on the bottom of the snowman, rolling it around one section of the yard until it had grown as tall as our knees and the area around it had been stripped almost entirely of snow, leaving what amounted to a giant mud puddle. Because of this, we had to move further down the yard to start on the middle, which was incredibly heavy, despite being smaller than the last, and it required both of us to lift it onto the base. It teetered awkwardly on the uneven surface, so I held onto it while Miranda ran off to grab more snow to pack around it and make it more stable. Once that was finished, we both stepped back and sat in the clean snow at the edge of our mud puddle, both of us breathing heavily.

"One more to go," Miranda huffed.

"I can handle the head if you want to go find some sticks and a carrot," I told her. "I mean, you've been in our refrigerator enough times to know where one probably is."

"Are you sure you can handle it out here by yourself?" she teased, punching me lightly on the shoulder. "That last one weighed a ton."

"I'll be fine," I insisted, though it was a complete and total lie. I had spoken without thinking, and only now did I realize that staying outside in the snow where he was likely to show up as soon as I was alone was actually a terrible idea, but it was too late to go back on it.

"Alright-y then!" Miranda chirped as she stood and brushed herself off before heading back up the hill, slipping and stumbling every once in a while. I sighed, knowing that she was going to be a while, and stood, as well.

I headed over to the other side of the house, where there was a fresh expanse of untouched snow. I set to work, getting down on my knees to start rolling the head, my nerves on edge. The wind blew sharply, snapping a twig off a frozen tree, and I jumped and looked around wildly. This happened several times in the first couple of seconds before I was finally able to calm down slightly and work. For a minute or so, everything was quiet, and I was almost at peace, falling into a feeling of false hope that Jack might never show up.

I stood, cradling the finished snowball in my hands, and I felt the wind pick up again, sending shivers up and down my spine. Behind me, a familiar voice spoke, and despite the fact that I had been expecting him, I still jumped at the sound and dropped the snowman's head. "Look who finally decided to come outside!" Jack remarked.

"Jack," I said simply, staring sadly at the dashed remains of the snowball on my boots. Slowly, I turned around to face him. "You sound surprised that I did."

"Well, I just figured it would take longer than a day. You're frustratingly stubborn, you know?" He flashed me a charming smile, even though I sensed that he was still upset with me.

"Believe me, this wasn't my choice," I assured him.

"Whatever that means," he said with a shrug. We were quiet for a while after, neither of us knowing what exactly to say. Jack rocked on his heels awkwardly before finally breaking the silence. "So, are we going to talk about what happened, or –"

"I'm not sure now's the best time," I told him, lowering my voice as I realized that Miranda might walk back outside at any second. I ran past Jack to peer around the side of the house, and thankfully, she was nowhere in sight.

I didn't realize that Jack had followed me until I heard his voice whispering directly in my ear. "What are we looking at?" he asked.

I frowned in annoyance and turned around to face him, only to find myself pressed against the brick wall of the house when I realized how close he was standing. I felt a blush crawl its way onto my cheeks as a cleared my throat and motioned for him to step back just a tad. "Right. Personal space," he recalled, rolling his eyes before drifting back a little.

"My friend Miranda is over. She's in the house right now, but she could come out at any second," I explained.

"When is she leaving?" Jack asked.

"She's staying the night."

"What are we going to do?"

" _We_?" I repeated.

"Yeah, _we_. I have to tell Jamie something, after all, and I hate lying to the kid, not to mention he would know about it right away, and you're an even worse liar than I am! We have to at least talk or take a selfie or something. You don't have to like it. You could even be throwing pillows at me the entire time, but the week's almost over, and I know you're going to want to get back to your stupid, normal life without looking insane in front of your friend, so what are we going to do?"

"I don't know!" I snapped, covering my face and plopping down in the snow. This was all too much to think about right then.

"Darian!" I heard Miranda's voice call from the other side of the house. "Darian, your mom said you were out of carrots, but I found a celery stick, if that helps!" She must have been coming down the hill.

"Shoot!" I exclaimed. "What are we going to do?"

Jack's eyes widened in mock surprise, and he gestured to himself. "Oh, so now you're asking me?" he teased, and I wanted to slap the following smirk off of his face.

"Darian?" Miranda called again. She had probably just reached the empty backyard and was wondering where I was.

"Yes!" I hissed through my teeth.

"If we can't talk in front of her because she can't see me, why don't we just make her believe?" Jack suggested.

"How the heck are we going to do that?" The better question would have been why I was suddenly accepting Jack's idea, but I was pressed for time and running out of options.

"Darian, where did you go?" I heard Miranda's footsteps come closer to where I was hiding.

"I don't know!" Jack said, throwing his arms up in exasperation. "Just go talk to her. I'll think of something."

I huffed in frustration and tried stumbling to my feet, only to have them slip out from under me on a slick patch created from the melting icicles above me. Jack caught my hand, though, preventing me from hitting the ground, and he helped pull me back up. I knew he must be smiling, but I found myself unable to look at him, choosing instead to bury my face in my scarf to hide my blush. Thankfully, the moment didn't last. It ended rather abruptly as he roughly grabbed my shoulders and turned me around to face Miranda, who had just rounded the corner.

"There you are!" she exclaimed. She looked me up and down and furrowed her brow in confusion. "Where's the head?"

"I, uh, dropped it," I managed to gasp out, surprised that I was able to say anything after what had just happened. With all the excitement that afternoon, my heart was hammering so heavy against my ribs that breathing had become somewhat difficult.

I felt something try to escape the box, and I had to shove it back in with all of my might.

"Dang it!" she grumbled before shrugging it off. "Oh, well. I guess we'll just have a snow-dwarf. Come on! Let's go find some arms!" She began walking away cheerfully, swinging the celery stick back and forth. I followed her a few paces before suddenly stopping in my tracks, trying to figure out what I was going to say. I looked back over my shoulder and saw Jack still standing behind me, motioning for me to say something. He was exaggerating everything in such a way that I actually almost laughed, and I had to look away before I did.

 _Get back into the box!_

"Hey, Miranda?" I began hesitantly.

"Hmm?" Miranda spun on her heel to face me, frowning when she saw how far ahead of me she was.

"I, um…I'm going to tell you something, and it's going to sound insane, but you have to believe it. If you could do that, it would make this so much easier," I stammered.

Miranda folded her arms across her chest, the stalk of celery she held sticking out awkwardly. "What's goin' on?"

"Do you remember when I was in Burgess, and I told you about a guy?"

"Yeah. His name was Jack, right?"

I nodded. From behind me, I heard a stunned Jack murmur, "You talked about me?" He sounded genuinely flattered, maybe even touched. I could only hope that he didn't take that fact too much to heart, or else it was going to be impossible to get rid of him later. Heck, it was impossible now.

"What about him?" she inquired.

"Well, he's kind of…here. As in, right now," I tried to explain.

"In Georgia?" I nodded again. "Is he stalkin' you or something?"

Something about that comment struck me as funny, and I couldn't contain a small fit of laughter. Behind me, I could hear Jack begin to snicker. "In a way," I replied vaguely.

"Hey!" Jack shouted from behind me. I ignored that.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Miranda asked.

"Well, here's that part that sounds crazy: I didn't tell you his full name."

"Yeah, you did," she insisted. "You said that it was Jackson Overland, but he liked to be called Jack. Why is that so crazy?"

"It's crazy because his full name is actually Jackson Overland _Frost_." I paused and waited a moment for the gears to turn in Miranda's head.

When the name finally clicked, she raised an eyebrow at me skeptically. "Jack Frost?" she said, deadpan. "Seriously, his name is Jack Frost? I'm not sure I understand what you're gettin' at here."

"Jack Frost, as in _the_ Jack Frost," I tried to tell her.

"I get that. Chestnuts roastin' and all that jazz. I'm just trying to understand what that has to do with anything."

"Jack is Jack Frost. He's real. He's the one who brought all of this snow. He's standing right behind me right now." I watched her face as I explained this and groaned as I saw that she was only getting more and more lost.

Trying to humor me, Miranda wondered, "Why can't I see him, then?"

"Magic?" I answered hesitantly. "It's weird. He can only be seen if you believe in him." Miranda didn't say anything, which was a rare event. "You don't believe me," I concluded.

"I agree with the 'crazy' part, at least, but the 'magic' part is a bit of a stretch. Darian, there's no one there."

I looked back over my shoulder at Jack, who was leaning against his staff in dismay. I wanted to scream at him to do something, anything, but that ran the risk of making me look even more insane.

"Oh, well. I tried," I sighed, looking back at Miranda. I couldn't think of anything else to say to make her believe.

Miranda gave a nervous chuckle. "You were joking, right? I mean, none of that was – hey!" She was cut off as a snowball hit her squarely in the face.

As she wiped the snow from her face, I whirled back around to Jack. "What are you doing?" I hissed. Jack only smiled and shrugged.

"Darian, what was that for?" Miranda asked as I looked at her again.

"I didn't – " I began, but another snowball sailed over my head to hit Miranda in the face again.

"Quit it!" she squealed, spitting out snow.

"I'm not doing anything!" I insisted.

"Then, who did?"

Before I could answer, an entire round of snowballs flew past, all aimed at Miranda. She tried to run, but most of them hit her, anyway. When that was over, she spun back around, her eyes wide. "What the actual f- "

"I told you! It's not me!" I interrupted.

"I get that, now! I was looking right at you! Those came out of nowhere!" she shouted in disbelief. Another snowball flew over my shoulder and knocked off Miranda's hat, and I couldn't help but laugh at how baffled she was.

"Okay, Jack. I think she's had enough," I chuckled, turning around only to get a snowball right in my face. I heard his laughter as I wiped the snow from my eyes. "Very funny."

"I know, right?" he laughed, throwing another snowball at me. This time, I managed to throw up my arm to block it.

"Seriously?" I snapped.

"Free-for-all!" Jack cried. He ran his staff along the snow at his feet, instantly forming an arsenal of snowballs.

I squeaked and began running the other direction, grabbing a very confused Miranda as I went. "Get down!" I instructed as the snowballs began raining down upon us. We dove down into the snow and covered our heads before beginning to slowly crawl behind our tiny snowman for some meager shelter.

We were both breathing heavily from running, and my hair had completely shaken loose. After a few moments, the attack stopped. "Okay, fine. You win. Snowballs comin' out of thin air would definitely qualify as magic," Miranda choked out.

"Welcome to my world," I told her, except it wasn't my world. My world was supposed to be normal, not full of Immortals. I was supposed to go to school and make good grades, not lose a snowball fight to the Spirit of Winter. Even though I tried to remind myself of all of this, it didn't seem to make any difference. When had all of this abnormality become my world? "So, you really believe?"

"I believe!" she said hastily. "I believe in Jack Frost."

"Great. We should let him know that, and _maybe_ he'll stop." I took advantage of the ceasefire to peer around the edge of the snowman, only to be greeted with an empty yard. Miranda looked out, as well.

"I still don't see anything," Miranda whined.

"That's because he's not there," I told her. We helped each other up before scanning the yard, only for a rush of wind to blow suddenly at our backs, carrying with it two snowballs that hit us both in the head.

"Boo!" Jack yelled.

Miranda whirled around and actually screamed in surprise when she first saw him, backing up only to trip over our little snowman and fall flat on her back.

"Jeezum Crow! Are you okay?" I asked while Jack only collapsed into a fit of laughter behind me.

"I'm fine," she said dizzily but made no move to get up. "Just give me a minute."

Jack came up beside me and looked down on her, still laughing so hard that he needed the support of his staff. "Miranda," I said, "I'd like to introduce you to Jack Frost."

 **(Yay for this chapter getting up on schedule! I love throwing Miranda into a chapter. It gives me a break from writing all of the angst. She was a character in the previous story, but I'm interested to hear what you think of her now that she's going to be appearing a little more often. Remember to favorite, follow, and review this story, and don't forget to tune in to next week's chapter of Frozen Family 2!)**


	4. Chapter 4: Winter Nights

**Darian**

"So, lemme get this straight," Miranda said, pressing her fingers into her forehead as if it were hurting. "Santa Claus?"

"Real," I deadpanned for probably the tenth time.

"The Easter Bunny?"

"Really full of himself," Jack replied.

"Tooth Fairy? Sandman?"

Jack and I nodded at the same time.

Miranda groaned and laid back on my bed. After Jack and I had helped her up out of the snow, we noticed that it was getting dark and retired to my room to try and help talk her through the whole magic revelation where my parents wouldn't overhear. The process was taking quite a while.

"If it helps, you're taking this a lot better than I did," I tried to assure her.

"Oh, yeah?" she asked disbelievingly.

"She punched me in the face," Jack grumbled. This finally drew a laugh out of her while I caught myself blushing and looked away.

"That's right! Darian told me about that!"

Jack looked at me in surprise, and I could only shrug and look anywhere else but in his eyes. There were too many things that I didn't want to admit to him. Miranda sat up and looked between the two of us as if expecting something, but thankfully, she made no further comment about the incident.

"Alright, so I think I'm gettin' it, now." She turned to Jack. "You and all those other guys are all immortal." Jack nodded. "And you're tasked by the Man in the Moon to protect children. Wow. That is incredibly strange to say out loud."

"Pretty much," Jack said.

"Why? What are you protectin' them from?" she inquired.

I stood suddenly, feeling the abrupt urge to escape from the conversation, even though it was triggered by a question that I had once asked not too long ago. I turned away from both Jack and Miranda, but I could feel their stares burning into my back. "Does anyone want drinks? I can go make some hot chocolate or something," I said hastily. I was sure everyone heard the breaks in my voice, and my face felt like it was on fire.

"Are you okay, Darian?" came Miranda's concerned voice.

"I'm fine," I lied, the first outright lie I had said in a while, and everyone saw right through it. Jack, despite still being upset and angry with me (and rightfully so), floated over to my side and tried to look me in the eye, so to avoid him, I concentrated on the fuzzy socks on my feet. I was so terrified that if he really looked at me, he would just spontaneously know what I had done, no matter how ridiculous that sounded. The guilt was burning me alive.

Jack had to have noticed how terrified I was, but he didn't comment on it. He didn't try to do anything stupid, like tell me that everything was perfectly safe or that he would protect me because he knew that I probably wouldn't believe it. He didn't embrace me or pat my back or hold my hand, and while a part of me was relieved at that, another missed his cool touch against my skin. Instead of doing any of that, he simply said, "We don't have to talk about that, about what happened, but she might as well know about him. You can leave the room for a bit if you just want me to tell her."

I nearly smiled at his understanding, but I didn't because Jack still didn't know the full reason why it took me so long to even my breathing, why even the mere mention of the monster's name set me off so badly. I had to act somewhat natural, though, in order to keep Jack from knowing the awful truth and to protect myself, as well.

"No," I whispered shakily. "No, I'll be fine. I mean it." To prove it, I slowly sat back down on the bed. Jack offered me a kind, concerned smile and sat down, as well.

"What's goin' on?" Miranda wondered, now a bit wary of the unexpected responses her question triggered. "Did I say something wrong?"

Jack shook his head. "It's just that who we're protecting them from is literally the scariest thing you can imagine – the bogeyman: Pitch Black."

"I'm guessin' that you both have some sort of history with him?" By her tone of voice, I could tell that Miranda was doing her best to take all of this seriously, but knowing that bedtime stories were real took some time to adjust to, and I would know.

"Things happened," Jack answered vaguely. Miranda made a face of dissatisfaction, but I gazed at her pleadingly, silently begging her to understand. While I knew it bothered her not to know the entire truth, she made her peace with it and didn't question us about our history with the bogeyman any further.

"He's pretty bad, huh?"

"He is the embodiment of fear itself," Jack explained. "He draws strength from it, and the other Guardians and I do our best to keep him in check, to keep him from growing too powerful. Obviously, he doesn't appreciate that, so he keeps trying to become strong enough to defeat us and take over the world, and he will kidnap, torture, and even kill to get what he wants."

I found myself looking away again at that last part. If only Jack knew, if only I could tell him about the torture he was putting me through that very second!

"Alright, so bogeyman: bad. Guardians: good. I think I got it."

It sounded so simple when she put it like that.

"Dinner!" my mom called from downstairs, and I couldn't help but feel relieved that I could finally get a break from Jack.

I stood and took a deep breath, much needed after that conversation, and offered a forced friendly smile at Jack for Miranda's sake. "Alright-y, then. I'm sure Miranda and I will be seeing a lot more of you," I said while Jack stared at me in confusion with the slightest flicker of hope in his eyes that killed me, "but I think you should really be on your way."

"What? You're not going to invite me to stay for dinner?" Jack teased.

"Yeah!" Miranda agreed, and I shot a glare at her for trying to encourage him.

"My parents can't see him," I explained to her. "Besides, Jack's an Immortal. He doesn't need food."

"Oh."

I shooed Jack out the door, and he grabbed his staff and flew on ahead of us as we descended the staircase. He paused at the door to the back porch and waited for us to get closer before saying, "I guess I'll see you later." With that, he flew off into the night.

I didn't escape my notice that he was looking directly at me when he said that, and I was certain that he noticed how I had to look away and hide how my face burned in shame.

In the kitchen, my mother had laid out grilled cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, perfect warm comfort foods for staying in on a cold night, and as an extra surprise, we found a bag of giant marshmallows next to a stack of chocolate bars and a box of graham crackers set out for dessert. My parents retired to their bedroom while we inhaled our sandwiches before setting up the s'mores ingredients on a blanket in front of the fireplace. We sat there for a while in silence, save for the occasional giggle, and roasted our marshmallows. I nibbled on the chocolate bars until Miranda had to start slapping my hand away to keep me from eating them all.

After shoving an entire s'more in her mouth and struggling to swallow, Miranda glanced slyly over at me. "So…" she began slowly, sticking another marshmallow on her stick. Her tone immediately informed me that I was not going to enjoy the following conversation, and I watched her warily while taking a bite out of my s'more. "Jack seems nice."

I nodded, blushing when I realized already where exactly she was heading with this.

"He's cute, too." She looked to me for some sort of response, and I stuffed the rest of my s'more into my mouth to keep from having to say anything. Finally, Miranda got tired of waiting for me and came right out and asked, "What did you mean when you told me that it didn't work out between you two? I mean, a month ago you were totally into him, and he seems like a pretty great guy."

I shrugged passively and looked away from Miranda, trying not to show how guilty I felt about the whole ordeal. "It just didn't work out," I mumbled.

"Do you maybe wanna elaborate any further?"

 _Not really_ , I wanted to say, but this was Miranda, and she rarely took no for an answer. "It's just complicated."

"What is?"

"Everything!" I exclaimed, throwing up my arms for emphasis. "There's the immortality and the fact that he's basically my cousin's older brother, and then, there's this whole other world that I didn't believe existed, and honestly, I just can't deal with all of that insanity!" I didn't realize that I hadn't taken a single breath until the end of that sentence, and I had to pause to breathe heavily while Miranda sat stunned by my outburst. "I just can't."

"You're the one who broke it off," Miranda concluded. My silence was her confirmation. She only shrugged at this and took her marshmallow off the stick and ate it plain. After swallowing, she continued, "I guess that makes sense. Every time you look away, Jack can't stop staring at you. Did you notice that?"

I felt my face burn as I fumbled with another marshmallow. "N-no, I…I didn't notice," I stammered.

"Really? He wasn't very discreet about it. I think he's still totally into you."

"I doesn't matter," I said, shaking my head. "It just won't work out."

I roasted my marshmallow in silence for a couple of seconds until I noticed a mischievous grin spread slowly across Miranda's face. She leaned over to me and asked in a hushed, excited voice, "Did you kiss him?"

I frowned and pushed her away, only for her to roll back onto the floor, laughing. I didn't join her this time, though I was tempted to. "Can we please talk about something else?" I begged. "Anything but this!"

Miranda popped right back up and shrugged, but I knew that this was not something that she was going to let go of easily. I knew it would only be a matter of time before it was brought back up. "Okay, lemme think. How about you tell me what happened with you and the bogeyman?"

I froze. I wasn't sure how long I sat there, but by the time Miranda snapped me back out of myself (my fear, my self-loathing), my marshmallow had melted off of my stick and plopped to the floor.

"That bad?" she inquired.

"Well, nothing good certainly happened," I muttered sadly.

"I'm sorry for asking. You and Jack were just so vague earlier."

"Jack was just trying to protect me," I explained to her, though the word "trying" kept sticking out to me. "I kind of freaked out."

"No kidding."

I stared at my poor marshmallow and took a deep breath before deciding that I would continue. Miranda had a right to know about just how bad the bogeyman was, just like I did, once. "You know how I've always had Nightmares, and I can't really sleep very well? That was him. That was Pitch. It's hard to explain, but Jack told me it's because I'm more susceptible to his magic or something like that. I guess I just get scared more easily than a normal person."

"Well, I could have told you that," Miranda said, trying to lighten my mood. It didn't help. Seeing this, she grew quiet and motioned for me to continue.

"I'm not sure I know the full story about what happened between Jack and Pitch. I can only tell you what Jack and Jamie told me. Apparently, on Easter nearly three years ago, Pitch had reached the peak of his power, and he attacked the Guardians with Nightmares and weakened children's belief in them, causing them to lose their power and even temporarily killing the Sandman. Jack wasn't a Guardian then, so he wasn't affected and helped them to fight back, but something happened. They all got into a fight, and Pitch tried to team up with Jack, but Jack refused and Pitch has had it out for him ever since. Because of that, he came after me."

I risked a glance up at Miranda as I took a moment to breathe deeply, trying in vain to steady my heartbeat. It was ramming so hard against my ribs that it caused a noticeable quiver in my voice, and there was a lump in my throat that I just couldn't force down. Miranda's eyes were wide, attentive, and concerned, and seeing that, I had to look away and back down at the floor, feeling tears prick the corners of my eyes as I brought memories to the surface that I had actively avoided for nearly a month.

"As you know, Jack and I had gotten close in the week I spent in Burgess. There was one night where he promised to take me flying again, like he had earlier in the week. I had just gotten back to my room that night when the window flew open, and at first, I thought Jack was messing with me, but I could have sworn that I had locked the window. Then, the door slammed, and my lamp exploded, and then there was this shadow of a hand…" Again, I had to stop and breathe, having been too caught up in my emotions and memories to remember to do so. I swiped at tears that hadn't even fallen and hoped that Miranda didn't notice.

"Pitch kidnapped me. He dragged me under the bed, and I ended up lost in a place straight out of my Nightmares. Everywhere I ran, he was there. I couldn't escape." I felt Miranda give my hand a comforting squeeze when she heard this, and I heaved a shaky sigh, grateful for the small contact when usually she wouldn't give any care about breaching my personal space. This was all I needed, for now. "Jack found me, eventually, and he flew me out of there, and that's what happened with me and Pitch." Well, the abridged version, anyway. I didn't need to tell her what Pitch had said to me because she had been by my side when I had heard all of those things before, when I had worried about it all being true.

"Darian, I…I'm so sorry that happened," she said after a moment, wrapping her arm around my shoulders in a soft embrace. A tear or two fell at her words, but thankfully, that was all, and thankfully, only Miranda was there to see.

"It happened," I said simply after taking a minute to calm down.

"At least, that's all over, now," Miranda tried to assure me.

I couldn't find it in me to respond, at all. All of my lies were spent.

After a little while longer, we put away the crackers and marshmallows – we ate all of the chocolate – and headed back up to my room. We slipped into pajamas and laid down on my bed, leaving the lamp on, naturally. Having spent the night several times before, Miranda knew about my strange habit and had become used to it, and now that she had heard the full story, or at least, what I was able to tell her, there was no way she was about to question it or insist that I turn the lamp off. We stared up at the ceiling and simply talked and giggled for a while over the stupidest things, and I was beginning to feel almost normal again until we collectively decided that it was time to go to sleep, or rather, time for Miranda to go to sleep and for me to spend a few boring hours losing myself in thought.

After close to an hour of lying there in the dim light and listening to Miranda snore, I began to get very bored, and on top of that, my mouth felt uncomfortably dry. There hadn't been too much to really think about except for the things that I didn't want to think about, so quietly, I slipped out from under the covers and snuck downstairs, hoping that a glass of water would be the perfect distraction.

The floor was as cold as ice due to the fact that the door to the back porch had accidentally been left open after someone let the cat out. I ignored it for the moment and focused on finding a clean glass, having to stand on my toes to reach into the tall cabinet. I finally managed to find one, and I shuffled over to the sink to fill it up. Within seconds, I had downed the whole glass. I was thirstier than I had originally thought, but when I turned around to get a refill, I found Jack staring at me over the counter. I nearly dropped my glass in surprise and had to cover my mouth to keep from crying out. Jack only smiled at this and stifled a laugh.

"Some things never change," he remarked wistfully.

"What are you doing here?" I hissed, glancing around nervously even though I knew that everyone must be asleep and couldn't possibly hear me.

Jack shrugged. "I just figured you would still be awake, so I was waiting for you to – "

"No! I mean, what are you doing _inside_?"

"Oh. The door was open," he explained simply.

"So you just flew on in without permission?"

"Pretty much."

He gave me such an innocent expression that I really couldn't find it in myself to be truly mad at him. Besides, he was probably used to doing that all the time at Jamie's. I set my glass down and slumped over the counter with an exasperated sigh. "I won't do it again," Jack assured me.

For whatever reason, I couldn't stifle a short laugh at that. "Yes, you will. I know it."

Jack gave in and agreed with me. "Yeah, probably."

A short silence followed, during which I traced circles on the dark countertop to keep myself busy and to avoid looking Jack in the eye. "If you're not doing anything right now, I was thinking that maybe we could just talk?" Jack said, finally breaking the silence.

I nodded, still not looking up at him. "Yeah, I think that's a good idea. Let's just go out on the porch so we don't wake anyone up."

Jack nodded at this and flew outside while I made a quick detour to the family room to grab a blanket to protect myself from the cold. Wrapping it around my shoulders for warmth, I followed Jack outside and closed the door behind us for a little more privacy. My cat ran out behind us before I could close it, though, and upon seeing Jack, she hissed and retreated to the other side of the porch. Jack stuck his tongue out at her and leaned against the railing, and I chuckled and did the same, neither of us looking directly at the other, choosing instead to focus on the moonlight reflecting off the gradually melting snow on the ground.

"To recap, you want me to leave and never bother you again, and I don't want to leave without something good to tell Jamie. Does that sound about right?" he asked.

"That's pretty much it."

"Well, we got that out of the way, at least." Jack rubbed the back of his neck and sighed, and I noticed that unlike mine, his breath didn't come out in clouds due to the cold. I wondered if I had noticed that before now. "What are we going to do about it?"

For a while, both of us stood there and thought until for once, I thought of something drastic. "You can stay," I said before I could fully process the thought.

Jack stared at me with wide blue eyes that I shrank away from, feeling myself blush. "You mean it?" he exclaimed. I gave the smallest nod, almost in shock from the dangerous decision I had made on impulse. I was in for it, now. "For how long?"

"Indefinitely," I replied. Jack gave a whoop of laughter and flipped over the railing, landing on the other side of it to come face to face with me. I backed away uncomfortably from his dazzling smile and pulled the blanket tighter around myself. "But there are conditions."

Jack's smile faltered. "Like what?"

"When you do leave, you leave for good. You never come back here, and you only ever talk or think about me if Jamie brings it up. Other than that, this never happened. Neither of us exists to the other," I told him.

Jack was less than enthusiastic about that, but he agreed to it, anyway. "Anything else?"

I started coming up with the guidelines on the spot, knowing that I would have to be very careful with this new situation. "You're going to have to make it stop snowing." Jack groaned at this, and I had to explain, "I have to go to school, eventually."

"Boring!" Jack whined, wrinkling his nose at the idea, and I laughed at his expression before continuing.

"There's one last thing," I said, feeling a small pit in my stomach form at what I was about to say. "We can play at being friends and all while you're here, but that's it. Nothing else goes on between us, and we certainly never mention that night under the mistletoe." I felt my face burn at the memory, and for a moment, I glanced down at my feet, which were becoming numb from the cold.

The situation I had outlined for us reminded me of something I had read in Leroux's _Phantom of the Opera_ , in which Raoul and Christine had played at being in love, but one of them would have to leave soon, and the other was being stalked by the title character, so their romance was forbidden. I thought of how it was described as tossing hearts back and forth, taking care not to damage them, and I wondered if that was the game I was about to play. I suddenly feared that ours might have the same result as in the book, and I shuddered, not because of the cold.

Jack swung his legs over the railing, looking quite disappointed until his trademark mischievous grin crossed his face, and I braced myself for trouble. "That's too bad because I really liked kissing you. I never got the chance to say that," he told me.

I knew he was only saying that now to get under my skin, but it was definitely working. I was sure that my face was as red as a tomato, and I shot him a warning glare to stop, or so help me, I would punch him right off the porch, even if I broke my hand trying. "Now, that's against the rules," I grumbled.

"It's true, though," he said, sounding more genuine. "And you're asking quite a lot of me. Shouldn't I get something out of this deal?"

"Something more than having some good stories to tell Jamie when you get back?"

"Exactly," he answered, sliding off the railing and back onto the porch in front of me.

"What do you want?" I asked warily.

"A kiss."

"A…w-what?" I stammered awkwardly.

"Just one. That's all, and I'll agree to whatever you want," he assured me.

I stared at him for a long while, trying to tell whether or not he was serious. His expression was teasing; he had to know how nervous and flustered this would make me, but his eyes were completely genuine, if not slightly pleading, and I thought about what Miranda said about him always looking longingly after me every time I turned away. "Fine," I gasped out after thinking on it for a while.

Jack's smirk fell, and his eyes went wide for a moment. Clearly, he had not expected me to agree to that. After a moment, he recovered, and the smile was back. "Okay," he said, as if it were no big deal. He began to lean closer, but I backed away.

"But - !" I began.

Jack paused and pulled away. "But what?" he groaned, leaning back against the railing.

"I'll only kiss you right before you leave," I stated.

Jack glared angrily at me for a moment before the anger faded, and he inexplicably burst into a fit of laughter, having to clutch the railing tighter to keep himself from doubling over.

"What's so funny?" I wondered.

"You!" he replied. "If I didn't know any better, I'd think you were _trying_ to get me to leave!" He continued laughing at his own joke, and despite myself, I couldn't help but join him, and both of us laughed and laughed until we were both holding tight to the railing, gasping for breath. It certainly hadn't been that funny, but it had felt good to release the tension between us.

Of course, some of that tension came rushing back as soon as my hand accidentally brushed his on the railing, and I snatched it back quickly while both of us calmed down. "It's a deal, then?"

"Deal," Jack agreed with a nod. "Although, I gotta ask: what made you change your mind?"

I gave a small shrug. "I don't know. A lot of things, really. You just met Miranda, and she would think it was pretty weird if I suddenly made you leave, and Jamie's already going to be upset with me because I haven't posted any pictures to Facebook, and I never really wanted you to leave. I just thought it would be for the best."

Before he could process that last part, I added, "Besides, I'm not really changing my mind. You still have to leave. It's more like I'm altering the deal." I paused to drop my voice an octave and quoted, "Pray I don't alter it any further."

Jack hung his head and snickered, and I did the same. "Sorry," I said. "Bad joke, I know."

"It doesn't matter. I just missed hearing you laugh," he commented.

I cleared my throat and backed away. "Careful," I warned. "That was almost against the rules." I half-expected him to try and wave off the rules, but instead, he respectfully backed off, and I smiled at him for it. "I should get inside." My feet were way past numb and were actually starting to hurt from the cold, and my cat had approached, despite her dislike of Jack, and was pawing anxiously at the door.

"Alright. Maybe we could go flying tomorrow night?" he asked hopefully. "Just as friends, of course."

I opened the door, allowing the cat to race inside before smiling and nodding at Jack. "I'd like that." Not to mention the fact that it would get me out of my room and reduce my chances of running into Pitch.

I headed indoors, but before I closed the door, Jack remarked. "It's past midnight."

I furrowed my brow in confusion. It wasn't like I hadn't stayed up this late before. "And?"

"Happy birthday." With that, he flew off, and I closed the door with the stupidest grin on my face.

The grin fell as I waited in the darkness for my feet to thaw. I had probably just made the most dangerous decision of my life, and I considered it a miracle that Pitch wasn't coming after me right that second. I tried to tell myself that it was all going to be okay, that maybe Pitch would understand, or that maybe Jack would leave before he found out, but who was I kidding? I couldn't lie to anyone else, and I certainly couldn't lie to myself.

When I finally regained the feeling in my toes, I dragged myself back upstairs, my exhaustion finally catching up with me. I was ready to fall back into bed and relax while staring at the ceiling for the next few hours, but when I opened my door, I found Miranda sitting upright on my bed. "Happy birthday!" she squealed.

"How long have you been up?" I asked.

"Since you got out of bed," she answered.

Seeing the knowing grin she gave me, I said, "What did you see?"

"Nothing," she replied too quickly before she couldn't contain it anymore and burst into song. "Jack and Darian, sittin' in a tree! K-I-S-S-I-N – "

"We didn't kiss!" I shouted, shoving a pillow into her face to shut her up.

"Not this time," came her muffled response.

 **(We're catching up to where I've written ahead, so I'm giving you a fair warning that a hiatus will be coming up soon. I hope to get up chapter five at the regularly scheduled time, but if not, I'll be sure to post on my profile if it will be postponed. In the meantime, Frozen Family 2 will continue as scheduled until it's completion. I don't have too much to say about this chapter in particular, but I'm very happy to be done with Darian's angst and stubbornness over her situation for the time being. I can't wait to hear your responses!)**


	5. Chapter 5: Stay With Me

**Darian**

If I did sleep at all that night, I certainly hadn't slept well, knowing the gravity of what I had just done. The last few hours of the early morning were nothing but a hazy blur in my restlessness, and when I was awake for certain, it was still too early for anyone to wake up, so I laid in my bed silently, listening to Miranda snore softly beside me and waited for the sun to rise. Eventually, Miranda woke up and stretched, but I stayed so still that she actually believed I was still asleep. She crept up beside me until she was right next to my ear and screamed, "Happy Birthday!"

I should have been expecting it, but I jumped in surprise anyway and nearly fell out of my bed. I bolted upright and had to catch my breath. All the while, Miranda was doubled over in laughter, and as soon as I gathered my senses, I grabbed the nearest pillow and whacked her across the head. This shut her up for a while as she had to spit out wild, cranberry-colored locks of her own hair that had flown into her mouth.

"Not funny," I insisted, though I couldn't keep from cracking a small smile.

"Whatever," she said. "So, do you feel any different, now that you're sixteen?"

I glanced around, wondering if anything was supposed to have changed. I still felt sleep-deprived and stressed, and upon catching a glimpse of myself in an antique mirror on my wall, I noticed that physically, I appeared the same – same unruly hair, same bags under blue eyes, same round face and unremarkable body. Miranda kept looking at me expectantly, though, as if knowing from earlier experience that something must be different, and because it seemed rather depressing to say right out that nothing had changed, I simply shrugged.

"Oh, well," Miranda sighed, letting the matter drop, for once. "Maybe you'll feel differently when you start driving."

I rubbed my tired eyes and stifled a yawn. "It is way too early to be thinking about that," I groaned, getting out of bed and stretching out some of my morning stiffness. I set to work on my morning routine, then, picking out a new dress my mother had bought me that I had hoped to wear to school on this day and headed into the bathroom to shower and change. Afterwards, as usual, I fought with my hair until I had it into a manageable arrangement and put on a light layer of makeup.

When I was done, I gave myself a hard look in the mirror, wondering why I had actually bothered with the whole ordeal. Sure, I definitely looked nicer, but what was the point? There was still a decent layer of snow and ice outside, and a dress was certainly impractical for that kind of weather. And why the makeup? Who, besides my parents and Miranda, was going to even see me or care how I looked?

Oh, right. Jack.

It still didn't make much sense to me. It wasn't like he hadn't seen me looking worse than a little bed-head. I wondered if maybe it was turning sixteen that made me care about such stupid things before I realized that it was really just an old habit that refused to die.

When I emerged from the bathroom, I found Miranda looking pretty much exactly like I left her, except she had gotten out of bed, put on shoes, and pulled back her tangled hair. It didn't appear like she had packed any other clothes, not that any were really necessary for the short drive back to her house. She withdrew her toothbrush from her backpack and disappeared into the bathroom for a few minutes to brush her teeth before returning to finish her packing, which didn't take more than a few seconds with how little she usually brought with her.

She hauled her backpack over just one shoulder, and we headed downstairs to find my mother pulling fresh muffins out of the oven as a special treat on my birthday. "Good morning!" she chirped. "Happy birthday, Darian! Miranda, would you care to stay for breakfast?"

"Actually, I better head back. I've got homework and junk I've been neglecting, and if the snow keeps melting, we're supposed to go back to school tomorrow. I will steal a muffin, though, if you don't mind." With a smirk, she grabbed a napkin and snatched a muffin without waiting for a reply, not that she really needed one.

She took a large, steaming bite out of her muffin and headed for the door. "Goo'bye!" she yelled over her shoulder through a mouthful. "Happy birthday!"

"Wait!" I called after her, following her out onto the porch and closing the door behind us.

Miranda swallowed. "What's up?"  
"You know you can't tell anyone about Jack, right?" I said, even though that wasn't technically true. Jack would love more believers, but keeping them to a minimum in my hometown would be very beneficial to me when he left, when I would need to forget about him.

"I wasn't plannin' on it, but why not?" she asked.

It was then that I realized that I hadn't thought this conversation through. "I just don't want to drag anyone else into this mess," I half-lied, hoping that she wouldn't immediately see right through it, or at the very least, she would go easy on me because it was my birthday.

Thankfully, she saw the opportunity to turn this into some sort of joke. "Oh, but it was okay to drag me into your crazy supernatural relationship mess? I see how it is," she said with mock anger.

"There's no relationship," I tried to tell her for the umpteenth time. "And besides, you would have gotten mad at me if I didn't."

Miranda thought about this for a moment and nodded. "True." We both laughed at this. "Alright, I better get out of here. Happy birthday, again." Miranda wrapped me in a one-armed hug before somehow managing to cram the rest of her muffin into her mouth while heading to her car.

I watched her go, but after that, I had to scurry back inside since the outfit I was wearing wasn't really the best for the winter weather, even with the temperature steadily rising back to normal levels. I shuffled to the living room and curled up next to my dad on the couch, massaging the warmth back into my toes. He kissed the top of my head and wished me a happy birthday before we both turned our attention to the news. It was the same story we had heard for the past two days. The sudden snow had caught Georgia completely unprepared, with the governor even declaring a state of emergency. The internet, laughing at our incompetence, had already spawned various nicknames for the event, including (but not limited to) the Snowpocalypse, Snowmageddon, and Hothlanta.

From then on, the rest of the day was fairly relaxing. We mostly gathered around the television and watched some of my favorite movies, and by the end of the day, the snow and ice had melted enough for us to drive into town to a cute, little Italian restaurant that I loved, and my grandparents met us there to give me birthday presents, and despite my protests, my dad let it slip to our waiter that it was my birthday, and the next thing I knew, the staff had descended upon our table with a plate of chocolate cake and ice cream, clapping their hands and singing way off-key, but it was the thought that counted. We didn't finish the cake, but the ice cream was gone in seconds, and after packing several to-go boxes with leftovers and saying our goodbyes, we were on our way back home.

Night fell quickly, as it always did this time of year, and after another round of birthday wishes, I retired to my room just as the phone rang. I laid back on my bed and scrolled through Facebook, scanning the multiple messages from family, friends, and even people I vaguely remembered seeing at reunions or passing in the hallway at school. Jamie sent me a private message telling me to have a happy birthday and that he was still waiting on those pictures, June's post was full of exclamations and emoji's, and the most recent one was from Jared, who sent me a short message wishing me a happy birthday and that he couldn't wait to see me at rehearsal right after school on Monday.

Wait, Monday?

The snow was melting. The streets were safe. As far as I knew, we were still scheduled to have school the next day, and I realized with a jolt that I still hadn't finished my homework. I groaned out loud and smacked my forehead. I really needed to get started on that. Maybe I could cancel my plans with Jack. He wouldn't like it, of course, but maybe it was for the best.

I closed my laptop and hauled my backpack up onto the bed, preparing to dump its contents out in front of me when my mother knocked once before opening the door a crack and popping her head inside my room. "The school just called," she informed me. "A water main burst nearby, so you don't have to go tomorrow."

Even with all that had happened over the past few days and despite how desperate I was to return to some sense of normalcy and security, I couldn't deny the childish response of relief when I heard the news. After all, even the best of students could only enjoy school to a certain extent. I gave my mom a small smile. "Awesome!" I cheered, tossing my backpack back into its lonely corner to join the pillows.

"Just thought you'd like to know," my mom said before ducking back out of the room. When the door clicked shut behind her, my smile slipped, and I collapsed back on the bed, too tired and anxious to stay happy about the news for too long.

I let my eyes drift to my clock and rest there, watching as the minutes ticked by at an unbearably slow pace, counting down to the end of my birthday, the end of another year. I thought about all that I had gone through in the past year and about Miranda's question that morning and realized that I really had changed. The person I was a year ago, fifteen and frightened, was not the same person lying there now. Yes, I was still frightened, but that was never going to change. At least, sixteen-year-old me finally had some grasp on a normal life, even if it was all because of an abnormal boy.

But fifteen-year-old me never felt this guilty. I realized that because of that, I envied her. I hated her. She never had to deal with the impossible.

I hated myself.

What else was there to do as I watched time pass me by, too afraid to go to sleep? I hardly noticed when midnight came and went, along with a whole year of life and its unpleasant experiences.

An unexpected voice jolted me violently back to reality. "I figured you would still be awake."

I sat up so fast that my head spun, but I kept my eyes fixed on Jack, who stood in the now open doorway. "What are you doing here?" I exclaimed, straining to keep my voice low and not wake my parents.

"I thought we were going flying. I know it's late, but I wanted to be sure your parents were asleep so you wouldn't get into trouble, and I didn't think you would mind since you don't really sleep much."

After the initial shock wore off, I remembered that yes, I had agreed to go flying, but that didn't stop me from rolling my eyes at him. "Okay, but you could have just tapped on my window!" I scolded. "Why are you inside?"

He shrugged. "The door to the back porch was open again."

"It's always open! It's so the cat can get in and out to go to the litterbox, and last I checked, you are not a cat."

"I sure hope not," he joked, and I found myself incapable of staying mad at him for too long. I surrendered and smiled at him, telling myself that my lack of willpower was only because I was just too tired.

"Alright. Just give me a second to get ready."

As I went about my room, gathering my coat, scarf, gloves, and boots, Jack shrugged and replied, "I can wait. I've got all the time in the world, but don't you have school or something in the morning?"

"It got cancelled again," I explained. "Apparently, a water main burst."

He gave a short laugh. "Awesome!"

"Not to mention the fact that some people are still without power in parts of the county."

"Oh," he said simply as he grew quiet for a minute in realization of the chaos he had brought down.

"Yeah, Georgia wasn't really prepared for this," I said, instinctively twisting the knife. When I realized what I was doing, I shook my head to clear it, reminding myself that while I still needed to somehow drive him away, I also needed to be friends with him again to, at the very least, keep him unaware of my deal with Pitch. "Sorry. I'm a bit of a buzzkill."

Jack rebounded quickly. "Well, I already knew that," he teased. "Are you ready to go?"

I examined myself in the mirror while fastening the top button of my coat. I still had on my dress, so my boots were really the only things protecting my legs from the cold, but there wasn't much I could do about that without completely changing my outfit, and I wasn't about to go through that whole awkwardness with Jack standing there. I shrugged and grabbed a hairband to keep my hair from flying into my face during flight. "As ready as I'll ever be," I told him.

We snuck downstairs. Unlike in Burgess, I knew which steps creaked and which steps to avoid so that I wouldn't wake my parents. Jack flew on ahead of me and still laughed at my cautiousness as I maneuvered my way down the stairs. I shot him a glare every once in a while, but it didn't take me nearly as long as it had the first time we went flying, so the good-natured ridicule didn't last too long. We headed out to the back porch, where Jack helped me climb onto his back, and he took off.

I realized that it had been quite a while since we last went flying, and he had been ridiculously gentle with me before, as well, so the quick take-off was very jarring. I felt my heart drop to my stomach as we rocketed upward, and I swallowed the urge to cry out in surprise until we were at a height that I was sure no one would hear us. At a certain point, he slowed down, and we began to drift on the icy winds. Jack let out a laugh as I tightened my grip on him and had to take several deep breaths. "You okay back there?" he called to me.

"It's been a while!" I shouted over the wind roaring in my ears.

"It's been too long!" he corrected me, clearly enjoying this. As we flew through the clouds, I felt his enthusiasm spread to me once the initial shock and breathlessness passed away. I smiled and glanced up at the stars, admiring once again how close they felt. I wanted to reach up and grab one, but I knew better than to do so, and kept my arms tight around Jack's neck. I hadn't realized how much I had missed this.

"So, where are we going?" I asked.

"You tell me!"

Alarmed, I momentarily tightened my hold on him until I heard him gag a bit. "Sorry!" I apologized quickly, loosening my arms around his neck so that he could breathe again. "You mean to tell me that you have no idea where you're going?"

"I generally don't," he joked, "but you know this town better than I do, so I figured I would let you give me the grand tour."

"I've never had to navigate from the air, Jack," I pointed out.

I felt him shrug. "Oh, well. Practice makes perfect." He turned his head to look back at me and flash me a smile, and I nearly screamed at him to keep his eyes on the road, er, sky, but before I could say anything, he dove below the cloud level, laughing when I cried out in surprise until my heart leapt into my throat. "Do you know where we are?" he asked, pointing below us.

I shimmied forward to look over his shoulder and gasped at the beautiful scene below us. I saw the still-green tips of pine trees in a forest lining a dimly lit road that we followed for a while, with me struggling to name the streets and neighborhoods that branched out from it. The darkness was also dotted here and there with the warm glow from houses that contained people who were somehow still awake, more insomniacs like myself. We broke off from the road when it turned into a bridge that stretched across a narrow portion of Lake Sydney Lanier, at which point Jack dove again to be closer to the water.

Lake Lanier was in no way the cleanest body of water around, but it provided a cool relief during hot Georgia summers. Even though I hadn't been to a lake party in several years, every so often my parents and I would visit some church friends, and while they spoke and drank on the dock, I would listen to music and read a book while dangling my feet in the water and waste away the day. I told Jack about this and more. I told him about the time my dad had taken me for my first Jet ski ride when I was five (I had screamed the whole time) and about the fireworks they set off over the lake every 4th of July and how pretty they had looked reflecting off the water. But even then, I had never seen the lake look more beautiful than it did when we flew over it, a sliver of moonlight peeking through the clouds to reflect off the gentle waves.

Jack listened to my stories and seemed very interested, but as spontaneous as he was, I should have expected to be interrupted eventually. I was talking about a hornet incident at a lake party when I was younger only to be suddenly yanked to the side as Jack changed course with a short exclamation of, "What's that over there?" Having relaxed my grip on him for the past several minutes, the sudden change in direction nearly threw me off and into the water.

"Hey!" I shouted, readjusting myself on his back, but he didn't seem to care. He simply laughed and continued flying towards the shore, where I saw that he had been distracted by a playground, of all things. "Really?" I groaned as he set me down by the park bench and flew to the top of the slide.

"What? You're never too old for this!" he told me before flinging himself down the chute with a shout.

"I'm sixteen now," I deadpanned.

"And I'm three-hundred-and-something!" he countered, jogging back over to me. "Come on! Just have some fun!" He offered his hand to me, and I glared at it skeptically, wondering if he had planned this all along as some sort of birthday surprise. Obviously, I took too long in deciding. Jack grew impatient and resorted to picking me up and flying me over to the top of the monkey bars.

"Jack!" I yelled as I tried to find my footing on the slick metal. He held my hands to keep me balanced. "Why?"

"Just check out the view from up here!" He took my shoulders and gently turned me to face the lake. It really was a nice picture, with the silver-tinged waves lapping at a tree-lined shore.

"Yes, but we could see this just fine by flying," I pointed out.

"But where's the fun in that?"

"Where's the fun in this?" I looked down at my precariously placed feet, which turned out to be a mistake. I felt suddenly very dizzy and clung to Jack even tighter. If he minded my nails digging through his sweatshirt at all, he did a great job not showing it.

"The danger," he answered in an excited whisper.

"What?"

Jack let go of me suddenly, and I flailed around a bit before gaining some semblance of balance. He hovered just above the monkey bars. "If I'm flying, there's no danger of me falling, but if I'm standing here, just high enough to get this perfect view, there wouldn't be any time for the wind to catch me before I hit the ground if I happened to fall." He landed again, somehow perching with supernaturally perfect balance, seemingly making his statement completely invalid. He smirked at me, as if he knew this.

"Oh, you mean like this?" I sacrificed my own balance to push him over, and we both fell to the ground. I grunted in pain. It certainly hadn't been my best decision, but at least landing on Jack had broken my fall, and the prank had been totally worth it.

Even though we were both rubbing sore spots, we ended up breaking into laughter, and when that died down, we only had to glance at each other to begin another fit of giggles. When we were finally out of breath, we helped each other up and walked over to sit on the bench that faced the water. I realized that Jack probably had planned on ending up here, on getting me to smile, on sitting here with this soothing view of the water. It almost reminded me of those nights in Burgess, except here, the water was too deep and the climate too warm for the lake to freeze over.

"So, sixteen?" Jack said when the silence stretched on a little too long.

"Yeah."

"Feel any different?"

"Why does everyone keep asking that?" I exclaimed.

Surprised, Jack moved back a bit, holding up his hands defensively. "I don't know. It's just something people ask." After waiting a second for me to calm down, he added, "Well, do you?"

It took me a minute to figure out how to answer that question. I couldn't tell him I felt frightened because I couldn't tell him why, and I definitely couldn't tell him how much I hated myself. That, too, I would be unable to explain.

"Not really," I answered. "I mean, compared to last year, I guess some things have changed."

"Anything specific come to mind?"

I plastered a smile on my face. "Well, last year I didn't have a really awesome best friend who can fly and create snow."

"Best friend?" Jack rubbed the back of his neck and gave a strange laugh.

"What?"

"It's nothing. I just can't decide if I'm being friend-zoned or if that's actually an upgrade."

"Jack!" I warned. "Don't do that."

"Sorry, sorry. I know. That was against the rules." He chuckled, as if that made everything alright, but we were both quiet again for a while after that. In the silence, I realized how cold my legs were, and I attempted to rub some warmth back into them.

I wondered again if this was really a good idea. I wanted to spend some time with Jack. I really had missed him, but knowing that it all had to come to an end eventually and having the threat of Pitch looming over me really brought down my mood, and it seemed like Jack could pick up on that, even though I couldn't tell him the entire reason why. Not to mention that this whole "being friends" thing was just going to get harder. I mean, how do you turn off how you feel about someone?

"Hey, check it out," Jack said in a hushed voice, desperate to chase away the awkwardness. I looked up to see what he was talking about, and my jaw dropped.

I had seen sunrises before. Being an insomniac had given me plenty of opportunities to watch the sun come up in the morning, but it had always been from my window or occasionally from either the back porch or my balcony. I had never enjoyed a sunrise like this, gazing out over the lake. I stood to get a better view, but Jack came up next to me and said, "We should probably get you home before your parents wake up."

I nodded mechanically, refusing to take my eyes off the sky. I climbed onto his back, and again, the takeoff took me by surprise. This time, I managed to giggle at myself and how strange it all was, and Jack joined in, which gave me some hope that things would be alright between us after all, not that it really mattered in the long run, but I tried not to think about that.

The flight back was extremely peaceful. As I watched the sky lighten and change colors, I leaned my head against his shoulder, feeling the night catch up to me. The wind whistling by made for a great lullaby, and the fabric of Jack's shirt felt soft on my cheek. I was so, so tired, and one blink lasted just too long, and before I knew it, I was drifting, floating away into darkness as the world around me grew brighter. "Darian?" Jack called. "We're almost back." The vibration of his voice brought me back down, and I shook my head, trying to clear away the last few cobwebs of sleep that had suddenly taken over me.

"Drop me off at my balcony in the front, just in case," I told him. I can get to my room faster from there, and my parents are less likely to see if they're up."

We came to a gentle stop on the balcony, where Jack helped me back to my feet. I stifled a yawn as I stepped away. "You should get some rest," Jack suggested.

"I'm fine," I assured him, dismissing his concern. "Let's do this again tonight."

"Darian-" Jack began.

"What? It's not like I have school or anything."

"But you need to sleep eventually," he insisted.

"That's what you think," I snickered. Jack didn't find it amusing.

"I'm serious!"

"Well, that's new."

"Darian!" He suddenly grabbed my shoulders and forced me to look him in the eye. "What's wrong? You're not looking so good."

I blushed and looked away self-consciously. "I'm fine," I repeated. Jack didn't look convinced. "I'm being serious. It's just been a rough week. You know how I am." I hoped that it was enough of a half-truth to convince him, but just in case I hadn't truly won him over, I added, "Please. I just want to go flying with you again. I had fun."

Jack sighed and dazzled me with a smile. "Alright," he agreed, releasing me, "but we're not staying out as long as we did tonight. I'd hate for you to get caught sneaking in and get in trouble."

"That's probably for the best. I'll see you later."

"Get some rest," he told me. Jack waved at me, and I gave a small wave back before watching him fly off and disappear in the distance, probably to make it snow somewhere in the nearby mountains.

It didn't really hit me until he was gone that I had actually just manipulated him right then, and I suddenly felt disgusting. I crept back inside and into my bedroom as quietly as I could, but thankfully, no one was really awake yet. Part of me wanted to shower, to take some time to sort everything out, but I was just too tired, and my mind was too clouded to really focus on any specific train of thought for too long. I changed out of my dress and into pajamas, which felt like a weird thing to do in the morning, but it wasn't like I was going anywhere.

I washed my face clean of makeup and brushed through my hair, tangled and bushy from the wind, despite having been pulled back. When all that was done, I leaned heavily against my vanity, gazing blankly at my reflection in the mirror that seemed to drift in and out of focus. My head had begun to throb painfully, and opening my eyes after each blink had become quite a chore.

I knew that I couldn't avoid sleep forever, and Jack knew it, too. The longest that any human had ever stayed awake was eleven days. I knew I wasn't crazy enough to push myself to that limit, nor was I strong enough. It had hardly been a few days with little sleep, and already, I was close to passing out. It seemed that even fear couldn't keep my eyes open.

I practically crawled to my bed and collapsed onto it. Nesting into the sheets, I couldn't imagine ever being so comfortable, except, of course, when I was flying with Jack, but I was hardly able to admit that to myself. The warmth of my quilt and the depth of my exhaustion vanquished any other worries that I might have had about truly falling asleep. After all, the sun was up, and I told myself that it would only be a quick, refreshing nap. What was the worst that could happen?

The next thing I knew, I was dragging myself out of bed at three in the afternoon, awakened by my stomach growling. I hadn't meant to sleep so long, but there had been no sign of Pitch, so I considered my nap a success in that aspect, but it had hardly been refreshing. If anything, it left me more tired than I was before. I nearly considered just closing my eyes again, but the ache in my gut refused to let me get comfortable again.

Getting to my feet and moving around helped to wake me up, but the groggy feeling still refused to go away entirely. I marched downstairs, giving small groans in response to my mom making "Sleeping Beauty" jokes at my expense. I fixed myself a small bowl of pasta and devoured it within minutes, but instead of returning to my room and my comfortable bed, I chose to curl up on the couch next to my mom. Dad still had to work that day, and Mom worked from home more often than not, so it was just the two of us hanging out that afternoon, which was a nice, normal activity in the midst of my supernatural adventures. We put on my mother's favorite Matthew McConaughey movie and enjoyed each other's company.

When Dad came home, Mom fixed us a light supper, and we ate at the table and had casual conversation. It was a nice, normal dinner with my nice, normal family, and it was everything I could have ever asked for. Then, why did it suddenly feel so boring?

I tried not to focus on the idea that maybe it was because I was so excited to be seeing Jack again and decided to blame it on my lack of sleep and desire to return to bed for another quick nap. I was excused from the table, and with the idea of sweet, blissful sleep fueling me, I ran up the stairs and launched myself back into bed. Just a few more minutes, and then I could go back to trying my hardest to avoid any run-ins with Pitch. I could last a couple more days.

As it turned out, a few minutes turned into a few hours, and a few hours was plenty of time for the sun to set and for a shadow to settle over my room.

I had been drifting in and out of dreams the entire time, thanks to some serious REM rebound. Every so often a dream would end, and I became aware that I should probably wake up, but then, the next one began, and I clung to it desperately and lost myself all over again. One I was in the middle of a dream, it was nearly impossible to realize that none of it was all real.

In my last dream, I had been talking to someone in an ancient, moonlit garden, but they had left, and I was sad, so I waltzed through the garden on my own, my gown fluttering out behind me. At one point, I stopped to touch the petals on a singularly magnificent rose, only for a cold, skeletal hand to shoot out from the bush and reach for my wrist. I jumped back, so the fingers only grazed me, but the hand continued swiping angrily at the air.

The garden had fallen into darkness, and hands were reaching out of all of the bushes and the trees and even springing up from mounds in the flower beds, all reaching for me. Horrified, I began to back away, only for one of the hands to tug at my hair. I screamed and started running down the garden path, feeling the hands grab my ankles, tear at my dress, and claw at my cheeks. When I reached a small bridge spanning a black river, I stopped, thinking that surely, I was safe away from the greenery.

A rustle behind me caused me to turn around, and I screamed again when I saw that the bushes had moved when I wasn't looking, and now, they were gathered around the edge of the bridge, fingers now still and pointing up at me accusingly. There was another rustle, and I turned and saw that the bushes on the other side were doing the same. Both sides remained like that, neither daring to move onto the bridge, continuing to point out my guilt.

The funny thing was that I couldn't quite remember what I was guilty of.

I peered over the side of the stone bridge, wondering if I should either surrender to the hands or take my chances in the water. I knew how to swim, but I couldn't be sure how deep the river ran, and I figured that if the hands were too scared to cross the bridge, something worse must be lurking in the dark water. Unfortunately, while I was still debating my options, the choice was made for me. The stone underneath my feet suddenly shook and cracked and eventually crumbled to dust.

I fell into the blackness, and I was right. It was much worse.

As soon as I was submerged, I became aware that all of this was a Nightmare, and therefore, was not real. My dress changed to pajamas, and I tried to breathe to calm my heart, but I found that I could not. Somehow, it still felt like I was underwater, and there was no air to be found. I had strong singer's lungs, so I knew I could hold my breath for a little while longer, but I couldn't be sure of how long this torture would last.

"Did you really think you could keep your little secret?" a voice called to me. As I floated through the emptiness, forever falling, I looked around wildly for the source of the voice, but there was no one near my, and the voice seemed to be coming from all around. It didn't matter, though. I knew who that voice belonged to.

"Did you really think you could hide? From me?" Pitch taunted. I thought I saw something flicker far away and heard a scream in the distance. Chills went up my spine as my lungs burned. "I knew what was going on the second I heard about the snow in Georgia. I've been watching you this whole time, but you've been smart – I'll give you that – in surrounding yourself by people and doing your best to stay in the light, to stay awake, but don't think that will stop me forever."

I tried to protest, to tell him that I hadn't planned for Jack to show up, but I had no voice, and my attempt only wasted more of my precious air.

Suddenly, I felt long, merciless fingers wrap tightly around my throat, strangling me further. Gravity took hold on me, and I kicked and scratched wildly to free myself, but Pitch didn't seem to feel any of it. His face came partially into my shrinking vision, his yellow eyes burning in the darkness. "Either get rid of him, or I'll do it for you," he hissed. I opened my mouth to scream.

My own screaming woke me up. My eyes snapped open, and I sat straight up, gasping for air, wonderful and plentiful air. My heart was threatening to leap out of my chest, and I felt the sting of tears in my eyes.

I looked up and saw Jack standing in my open doorway, freezing me with his worried gaze. I didn't know what to do or what to say, so I did the only thing that made sense in that moment. I ran.

I threw off my covers and scurried to my bathroom, slamming the door shut behind me and locking it for good measure. I heard Jack calling my name, but I ignored it. I shed my clothes and leapt into the shower, turning it up as high as I could so that he couldn't hear me cry and wonder why he couldn't just go away and leave me alone forever. The heat of the water turned my skin red and raw, but I didn't care. I was burning already.

 **Jack**

I don't know how long I knocked on the door and called her name, but I eventually gave up after hearing the shower running, knowing that she wouldn't be coming out anytime soon.

I slid to the floor and leaned against the bathroom door, wondering what had been going on with her lately. She seemed nervous all the time, even more so than before, and I was constantly worried that it was all my fault. Yes, I had been reckless in coming down unannounced when she had made it very clear that she didn't want to see me.

I wondered if our "solution" had really solved anything. Sure, we had finally talked things out, but it still felt as if there was something that had been left unsaid. I hadn't noticed at first because I had almost gotten used to that kind of behavior from Darian. She could be very quiet and secretive when she wanted to be, and more often than not, she was hiding something. I knew that this was usually motivated by shyness, but that didn't explain that small flicker of fear in her eyes every time she looked at me. No, she was hiding something very important this time.

After a long wait, I finally heard the shower shut off, and if I really listened, I could hear light footsteps against the bathroom tiles.

"Darian?" I called.

As if in answer, the footsteps stopped.

Figuring that was the most response that I was going to get out of her, I stood. "Look, I don't know what exactly has been wrong, lately, but you know that I want to help, but I also know that you probably don't want to talk about it, and that's fine. That's just you."

I paused as I heard the footsteps come closer to the door, but they stopped rather abruptly.

I swallowed hard before continuing. "I care about you, Darian, and I know that it's against the rules, but I can't help it. I want to be there for you, but I'm sure that you want some space right now, so I'm going to leave you alone for a bit. Just give a shout in the yard if you're feeling better or you want to talk."

I grabbed my staff and began walking away, only to freeze when I heard the door creak open behind me. I turned around to see half of Darian's face peeking through the crack. Her skin was red from the heat of the shower, and her dripping hair clung to her cheeks. Her eyes were wide and pleading, and I was reminded of another night, when we were in a similar situation, when I had chosen to stay with her. Only this time, Darian actually spoke.

"Wait!" she cried, only to go silent a moment after, as if she, too, were stunned by the sound of her voice. When she spoke again, her words were much quieter and far more timid. "Don't go. Please. I want you to stay."

I nodded slowly, somewhat in shock by her confession. "Okay. Sure," I said breathlessly. I sat back down next to the bathroom door and she did the same on the other side, leaving the door open just wide enough for her fingertips to slip through and rest next to mine, not quite touching.

We sat there in total silence, like before, but I couldn't help but feel that something was different, that something had changed, and I couldn't help but wonder if it was for better or for worse, but did it really matter? I glanced over at Darian through the crack in the doorway and saw how scared she looked, how she still shivered in her robe from whatever had frightened her, and I knew that no matter what happened, I was going to protect her. I had always known that. That had never changed and never would.

 **(Sorry for how long this chapter took! While writing it, things sort of got out of hand. The scene at the playground was not originally planned, and I honestly considered cutting it, but I decided to keep it because we get to see how Jack still isn't completely okay with the situation they have set up. Darian's dream sequence was also significantly extended, simply because I kind of enjoy writing those surreal, impossible moments that happen in nightmares. I know I also said that we were done with angst for now. As it turns out, I lied, but the next chapter is planned to be mostly Jack and Darian fluff. Speaking of the next chapter, I'm afraid that it won't be posted for a while. This story will be going on a hopefully short hiatus while I write ahead a few chapters. Check my profile page for updates if you're ever curious, and in the meantime, be sure to favorite, follow, and review! I love hearing from you guys!)**


	6. Chapter 6: Patient Is The Night

**Jack**

Although I had been caught completely off-guard when Darian had confessed that she wanted me to stay, I couldn't deny that I had been thrilled by it in the moment. In fact, I was ecstatic to sit by her side. It seemed like we had made some sort of progress.

It hadn't occurred to me then how mind-numbingly boring it was to sit in silence for hours on end.

It was funny how easily bored I got after spending 300 years alone. You would think that I would have found some way to entertain myself by now. You would be wrong.

Sure, I could daydream or toss snowballs around if I felt like it, but I really didn't. Darian needed me, and I felt like I needed to be fully present and aware for her sake, just in case, so I didn't doze off, and I didn't complain, though once or twice I might have let out a sigh to break the heavy silence.

I couldn't remember the boredom being this bad the last time I had stayed to comfort her, but the more I thought about it, the more I realized that I had needed to be comforted as well back then. We had both been shaken pretty badly by Pitch's attack.

Pitch. Pitch…

Did this time have anything to do with Pitch, as well?

I ended up not pursuing that train of thought as the first rays of sunlight leaked in through the curtains, which took up the whole of my admittedly short attention span. We had been sitting there all night long. I turned to look back at Darian through the crack in the door. Surely, she must be tired and sore from sitting so long, as well! Only, I found that Darian wasn't sitting. At some point in the night, she had curled up on the tiled bathroom floor, her head resting on a wadded up towel. Her face was mostly hidden by her wild, tangled curls, but I could see that her eyes were closed.

I winced, imagining how worn out she must have been to fall asleep in such an uncomfortable situation. She would most likely be very sore after sleeping in such a position, and as a result, very grumpy. I decided that it would be best for my health and for hers if I moved her to her bed, so very carefully, I pushed on the door until it was just wide enough for me to slip into the bathroom. I gently lifted her up off the floor, taking care not to jostle her too much or to let my cold hands brush her skin, which was incredibly difficult, considering that she was clothed only in a bath robe. My struggles were all in vain, unfortunately. By the time I had flown her over to her bed, I saw that her eyes were open.

She didn't say anything at first when I set her down. She only blushed and drew her robe tighter around herself, her eyes darting awkwardly around the room.

"Sorry," I began. "You just looked very uncomfortable on the floor. I just…are you okay? Do you need anything?"

"No, no. It's fine," she mumbled, but I noticed that her eyes lingered on her closet as she absentmindedly drew her sheets up to cover her bare legs.

"You're probably hungry or something, right? Do you want breakfast? I can go down and find you something so you can get dressed," I said quickly, grabbing my staff and heading for the door.

"Jack, you don't have to-" she called after me, but I had already closed the door behind me. I flew downstairs to the kitchen, not daring to turn on the lights and wake up her parents on accident. The sunlight streaming in through the windows was still early and weak, but it was enough to allow me to see.

I had never really cooked anything before, and doing so would probably cause a lot of noise that would wake up her parents, so I quickly ruled out eggs and bacon as an option. I found some orange juice in the refrigerator and poured it in a glass that I dug out of a cupboard, but I wondered if she might want more than that. I found a packet of toaster pastries in the pantry, but after staring blankly at the toaster for a good five minutes, I realized that I had never actually used one before. I didn't think Darian would ever forgive me if I accidentally burned her house down (though it would be incredibly ironic considering my powers), so I simply opened the package and emptied the two tarts onto a plate.

I carried my sad attempt at breakfast back upstairs and knocked lightly on Darian's door. "Come in," came her muffled response.

Making a show of balancing the glass of juice on the plate in one hand, I entered, dramatically announcing, "Breakfast is served!" This managed to draw out a tiny laugh from Darian, who had changed into a long-sleeved t-shirt and leggings and was sitting at the foot of her bed, running her hair through a brush. I sat next to her and placed the plate in between us. Darian set her hairbrush down and gave the breakfast an odd look, and I wondered if she was a little disappointed. Even I thought that the two flattened pastries looked pretty sad sitting all alone on such a large plate, and I wondered if I should have grabbed a banana or something to fill it out more.

"I'm sorry that it's not much," I apologized. "I actually don't know how to work a toaster."

Darian shook her head, chuckling. "It's not that. This is just so nice of you to do. You really didn't have to…" She trailed off and turned away from me for a moment to brush away a tear, but I pretended that I didn't notice. When she faced me again, she quickly changed the subject. "I think that they're better cold, anyway."

"Really?" I asked.

She nodded, picking up one of the tarts. "You should try it. You can have the other one, if you want." I was about to refuse, but she insisted. "I mean it. I'm not that hungry anyway." She pushed the plate towards me and nibbled on her pastry.

We ate in silence for the next few minutes, and I decided that she was right. The pastries were pretty good cold, but I had never eaten one hot before, or one period, so I didn't really have a frame of reference. My one complaint about the tarts was that the kind she had were very chocolaty, and I wished that I had thought to grab myself a drink from the kitchen. I glanced over at Darian, who had set the empty plate and the glass down in the floor after she was finished so that they wouldn't fall and break. I noticed that there was still a little orange juice left.

"Are you finished with that?" I asked her. She nodded, and without any further thought, I grabbed the glass and drained the last bit of juice. I sighed with relief as I set it down, but when I turned back to Darian, I saw that her eyes were wide and that her face had gone red again. "What?"

"Nothing," she said with a small squeak. She turned away immediately after, knowing that I would catch the lie almost immediately. I thought about what might have set her off, and after a moment, the implication of an indirect kiss hit me like a ton of bricks. I turned away, too.

They say that it's only awkward if you make it awkward, and that seemed to be something we excelled at.

After a moment, we recovered somewhat, and we both relaxed enough to start giggling about our overreactions to the whole thing, but it wasn't long before Darian's smile faltered and eventually fell. I grew quiet and waited for her to say something.

"I'm sorry," she murmured, "about last night."

I didn't try to tell her that it was alright because I had a sneaking suspicion that it really wasn't, that the progress we seemed to have made was motivated by something sinister and maybe wasn't progress at all. "Do you want to talk about it?"

Darian shook her head. "No, I really don't. I'm just dealing with a lot of stress right now, and it's not you. Well, actually…" She covered her face with her hands and groaned, "I sound like I'm making excuses."

Darian let her hands fall to her lap, and we both watch as she clenched them into fists, slowly building up resolve. Suddenly, her head shot up so that we came face to face. In her eyes I saw that same clarity I had caught a glimpse of on the first day I returned, that bright glimmer of truth, and I leaned forward, eager to hear what I knew she had been hiding all this time. "Jack, I – " Her voice caught in her throat, and I watched as she tried to find her words over and over again, but eventually the spark died, and her shoulders slumped in despair.

"Jack, why are you still here?" she cried as soon as she regained her voice. She shut her eyes tight to keep tears from falling.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"I've been nothing but horrible to you. I've yelled at you, hit you, shut you out, but you stay and you comfort me and bring me breakfast. I certainly don't deserve it, so why?" She pressed her hands into her eyes, trying very, very hard to keep from sobbing.

At this point, I deliberately broke one of the rules and invaded her personal space to take one of her hands into my own, but I didn't care. I needed to get my point across. "Because I care about you," I answered softly. She only sniffled in response, but I knew she heard and understood me. Then, feeling the need to lighten the mood, I added, "Also, according to our deal, I can't leave until you've kissed me, so…"

Darian laughed and gave me a playful shove. Wiping at her eyes, she giggled, "You are ridiculous!"

I gave my best attempt at puppy dog eyes and teased, "Aw, you know you care about me."

"Yeah. I do," she admitted in all seriousness.

"What about the rules?" I inquired.

"Let's not worry about them right now. I think they just put too much pressure on us and made everything awkward," she said. "Besides, friends can care about each other, right?"

"Right," I said, nodding along despite feeling a little like I had just been friend-zoned. What did it matter, anyway? This was only a short-term arrangement. "So what do we do now?"

Darian shrugged. "I don't know. I'd still like to go flying."

"I'm not sure that's such a good idea," I told her, shaking my head. "After whatever happened last night, maybe you should rest."

"I did rest!" Darian quickly assured me. "All day yesterday, in fact, which is a lot more than I ever do, so I'll be fine to go flying tonight."

"Um…" I began, not really sure if I could believe her, knowing that there were things that she was keeping hidden from me.

"Please, Jack," she begged, giving me the most pitiful expression of longing I had ever seen in my life. Her lips were drawn in a pout, and she looked up at me through her eyelashes with wide, pleading eyes. Although it seemed that she came by this face honestly, I recognized that at least on some level, Darian knew very well what she was doing, trying to persuade me in any way she could, and while it was hard, I was still about to refuse her. But then, she grabbed my hand, breaking her own vow of personal space, and clasped it tightly in hers. "Please."

All of my resolve melted away. How could I say no to that?

"Fine. We'll go flying tonight," I conceded.

I expected Darian to drop my hand along with the sad act she had put up, but to my surprise, she only grasped my hand tighter, and I felt my heart race at that. "Great!" she exclaimed, her face immediately lighting up.

"But," I began, and I watched as she flinched at the word, "you have to promise me that you'll rest tomorrow night."

Her shoulders drooped, but she still replied, "I promise." I saw in her eyes that she was telling the truth, so I smiled and accepted the answer.

Darian let our hands fall back down onto the mattress, but she set them in a way that left our fingers overlap, and I found that I could not stop grinning like a fool. We had held hands before but for only approximately three seconds, and even that had sent me soaring. She had never stayed so close to me for so long, not even that night under the mistletoe, though that had been sort of a spontaneous thing. After a while, however, I said, "I should probably go. I'm sure you'd like a little bit of alone time, so I'll let you have your space."

Darian's fingers suddenly curled ever so slightly around my own at that, and I was reminded with a startling jolt why I was actually there, why I had stuck around for so long: to protect Darian. As her fingers tightened and gradually relaxed on mine, I saw that her reaching out for me was at least partially motivated by fear and that she was seeking me out as a form of security. The fact that she no longer seemed to be afraid of me was a comfort, but there was still something out there that she seemed to be deathly afraid of that she wouldn't admit to me.

"Okay," Darian said, smiling as if nothing had happened. She and I both took our hands back, and while she massaged hers in her lap to bring some warmth back into it, I let mine lay still, savoring the warmth her fingers had left behind until it had faded completely. When it was gone, I stood and grabbed my staff, preparing to leave.

"I guess I'll see you tonight."

"Tonight," she repeated with an affirming nod. I flashed one last smile at her before dashing down the stairs, where I saw that her parents were finally awake and fixing breakfast, and out the door to the back porch, left open, as always.

Recently, daytime had become my moments of peace, if you could even really call it that. I spent my time alone dashing through the town, trying to build a mental map of the area so that I wouldn't have to rely on Darian to find my way around. Unfortunately, as per Darian's request, I had let the weather start to warm up a bit, which tired me out faster than I would have liked. When I needed some true rest, I would pick an unnoticeable spot at the edge of the lake to freeze over and spend a while resting, and once I felt better, I would be back in the air to play pranks on poor, unsuspecting passers-by.

If I were in Burgess, I would have been doing all of these things at night, but because Darian appeared to be nocturnal, I spent my nights with her. It was a weird and interesting change, but I hesitated to call it a nice one. The Man in the Moon appeared to keep a watchful eye on my outings with Darian, and it made me uncomfortable, to say the least, considering I was keeping this a secret from even the Guardians. And then, of course, there was Darian, herself! I cared for Darian – I really did – but she could be so frustrating and make everything so complicated, and even though I knew her probably better than anyone, there had been so many times recently that I could not understand her.

As I laid back in the shade of a pine tree by the lake, frost winding its way over the roots I reclined in, I chased down the thread of thought I'd had much earlier in the day, remembering how her first run-in with the bogeyman had brought about similar evasive behavior from her, and I just couldn't help but wonder. Was he somehow involved in all this?

Shaking my head, I abruptly put an end to that train of thought. No, if he was involved, Darian would have told me. After all we'd been through, she wouldn't even think about keeping something like that a secret from me.

Of course, there was something else I had considered but had been ignoring throughout the duration of my stay in Georgia. Maybe there was no secret. Maybe it was just me. Maybe I was trying to force a relationship on someone who had told me repeatedly that it would never work.

When I thought about it that way, I felt like a real jerk, asking for some kind of explanation when she had already given it. Perhaps I thought I knew her better than I really did, and she wasn't intentionally hiding something from me. Darian would always have her secrets. I just assumed I could be the one person she shared them with. How stupid, how desperate, how selfish I must have seemed to her this entire time, when all she wanted was for me to leave her alone!

I felt the urge to move about somewhere, so I flitted about between the trees, scaring away birds that had flown south for the winter. At one point, I found a flock of Canada geese wandering by the edge of the lake, and I ran right through them, which wasn't as funny as I thought it would be. Geese are vicious.

I gave up trying to fight them off and wound up retreating into the air, flying over the busier part of town. I considered diving down to mess with a few overloaded shoppers, but my heart just wasn't in it. I had made a heavy decision. I knew what I had to do.

I returned to Darian's that night, as promised, but I still flew in through the back porch unannounced. Darian, already dressed in her coat and boots, shot me an annoyed glare when she caught me at her door. "Jack, we talked about this."

I put on an easy-going smile as I teased, "You know I'm just doing it to annoy you, right?" Darian rolled her eyes and laughed despite herself, and unknown to her, I did my best to commit that laugh to memory, never wanting to forget it. "Are you ready to go?" She stood up from the foot of her bed and gestured to her attire, and I smiled and let her lead me to the front porch, where there was less risk of her parents catching her.

She spoke a little during our flight, which felt a little odd since I was so used to dominating the conversations at this time, and I was thankful that she couldn't really see my face or the worry I let slip into my expression. I was more nervous than I could ever remember being before. "Where are we going tonight?" she wondered.

"Is there anywhere in particular that you wanted to go to?" I replied.

"Not really," she said with a shrug. "Honestly, I just wanted to be out of my room." She grew quiet for a moment, and I knew that she was thinking about whatever had spooked her the night before, and I felt another twinge of guilt. She was under so much stress, and I was only making it worse.

"There's a nature trail over by the playground we went to last time," she offered up eventually.

"Sounds good to me!" I said, making an effort to sound cheerful. I dove sharply, delighting in the sound of her squeal of surprise, in how she clung tighter to me, even if she was nearly strangling me. I took us under a bridge and flew low enough to the water that Darian could reach down and drag her fingers across the waves when she felt brave enough to release me for a moment. She laughed and shook the droplets from her fingers before drawing her hand up to her chest to keep it warm.

I veered off to the shore and found the park easily enough, and I chose to land at the top of the twisting slide so that we had to ride it down, but our combined weights sent us sliding down so quickly that we ended up flying off the end and into a tangled mess at the bottom. "Why do we always end up here?" Darian chuckled, picking woodchips out of her hair as she attempted to stand.

"I don't know. I don't think it's so bad, though," I joked, dragging her back down.

"Jack!" she squealed, pushing me away, but she was laughing so hard that it was hardly effective. Even in the darkness, I caught her blush.

When we finally stood and helped clean each other off, Darian pointed out the entrance to the nature trail, and also to a small, grassy area lined by cherry trees across the street, where she said her parents used to take her for picnics when she was very young, before her life had gotten crazy. Something inside me ached at that, at the thought of Darian as a little, untroubled girl before even her Nightmares had gotten too bad.

We started down the marked trail that wound its way through the pine trees but always kept close to the lake, so that even if you couldn't see it too well, you could always hear the splash of the waves. The walk was beautiful but unbearably quiet, and it soon became clear that it was my own fault, that Darian knew my silence was uncharacteristic and was waiting for me to say something. We reached the end of the trail, where a bench overlooked the silvery surface of the lake, and we both sat down.

"It sure is beautiful tonight," Darian remarked awkwardly, trying to get something out of me. "The stars are pretty."

"So are you," I said, trying to sound smooth but failing spectacularly, and while Darian blushed at the compliment, she couldn't help but snicker. Still, she let her fingers brush mine, which gave me confidence enough to take her hand, and to my surprise, she didn't protest or pull away. We sat like that for a while, but I knew that I needed to get straight to what I wanted to say to her.

I moved closer to her, and when she looked at me to see what may have caused this, I reached up with my free hand and caressed her cheek as lightly as I could, scared out of my mind that I was doing something wrong. But then there was a single shining moment that I wished I could keep frozen forever, in which our faces were mere inches apart, and her eyes gazed into mine as her breath faltered and her cheeks burned bright red.

But then that moment ended.

Her hand flew up and caught my wrist, her grip tight and threatening. If I made one more move, I knew that I was likely to be punched into next week, even if she broke her entire arm doing so. "What are you doing?" she said quickly. Her voice was quiet but stern, leaving hardly any room uncertainty or fear to cause it to waver and break.

I answered her question with two of my own. "Do you want to kiss me? Do you want me to leave?"

"What?" she gasped.

"I know I haven't been making things easy for you these past couple of days. I realize that my being here has caused you more stress than you deserve. I'm sorry that I've put us both through so much pain, and I'm willing to end our deal right here, right now if that's what you want. If you just kiss me, I'll go and never come back, just like you asked. No muss, no fuss," I told her.

"What?" she repeated, louder this time, as she pulled away.

"Of course, I'd fly you back home first…" I rambled.

"Jack!" she shouted, squeezing my hand to get me to shut up. Darian shook her head. "No!"

"I thought that's what you wanted. You've been telling me so ever since I got here," I reminded her.

"I know, but – "

"And after last night, I just – "

"Jack, I had a Nightmare!" she blurted out.

This time, it was my turn to say, "What?"

"I mean, you can't just expect them to go away. It was my first one in a while, though, so it doesn't mean that what happened in Burgess made anything worse," she said quickly when she saw how I glanced over at my staff, propped up against the back of the bench. "Sure, I was upset by it, but I didn't tell you because I didn't want you to freak out." She looked away from me then, seeming ashamed, and there was that nagging feeling that she was hiding something again. "Please, don't be mad at me?"

How could I be, when she sounded so pitiful? "Why would I - ? I'm not mad, Darian." She released my wrist from her iron grip. "But are you sure you wouldn't rather me leave?"

"No!" she exclaimed, and when she looked up at me again, I couldn't miss the flash of fear in her eyes. She clung to my hand with renewed desperation. "Just stay a little longer while I try and figure a few things out. Promise me?"

"I promise," I stated. Darian smiled and laced her fingers between mine for the first time, and my heart nearly stopped at that moment. We stayed like that for the remainder of the night.

The next night, however, Darian's infamous stubbornness made a spectacular reappearance. I flew up to her room to find her pacing back and forth, the carpet muffling her footsteps. "What are you still doing up?" I asked. "It's almost midnight."

"What do you think?" she huffed, tossing herself onto her bed and pressing the heels of her palms into her eyes.

"We had a deal," I reminded her. "You promised."

"I know," she mumbled.

"Not to mention you have school in the morning."

"I know!" Darian snatched a pillow and hurled it at my head, and I let it hit me squarely in the face, not that I really could have dodged it if I tried. She had spectacular aim. "I've tried reading. I've tried counting sheep. Heck, I even tried studying ahead in calculus! Nothing works!"

"Dream sand seemed to work pretty well last time," I remarked.

"Don't you dare!" she snapped, reaching threateningly for another pillow. I wondered why she had so many when she rarely used them, and then I started contemplating the term "throw pillow" and had to stop that train of thought quickly before I burst out laughing.

"Why not? And if you're still worried about the Nightmares, I could stick around and keep watch," I offered.

"Absolutely not!" Darian really seemed to consider throwing that pillow at me but eventually decided against doing so, most likely because she was waiting to see if I said something even more stupid. "You are not staying in my bedroom and watching me sleep. _Again_."

I winced. Yeah, it had not been my proudest moment, but it wasn't like I had been a perv or anything. "Well, what do you normally do when you can't sleep?"

"I stare at a ceiling and contemplate the meaning of existence," she deadpanned.

"Ha-ha, very funny, but seriously – "

"I was being serious."

I rocked back and forth on my heels awkwardly, trying to come up with a solution. "Okay, then. What if maybe you tried doing something fun or productive? I mean, Jamie always falls asleep whenever he's trying his hardest to stay awake."

Darian gaped at me, and after a silent moment or two, it was starting to make me uncomfortable. "Did I say something wrong?" I asked hesitantly, even though I could usually guess the answer to that question. Darian was not the only expert on putting one's foot in their mouth multiple times.

She shook her head. "No. That's actually a good idea," she told me, sounding stunned.

I shrugged, trying to play it cool, even though I was cheering on the inside. "You know, I get those occasionally. Do you have anything in mind?"

Darian got up, unzipped her backpack, and pulled out a small paperback book. The front cover was a cheery yellow with a red border that was interrupted by a few white stripes. _Seussical_ was printed on the front, and below that, Darian had signed her name in her loopy cursive, marking this book as her own. "Would you mind helping me rehearse? I have most of it memorized, but it can't hurt to be over-prepared."

She handed the book to me, and I flipped through the pages absentmindedly. "Is this, like, your script or something?"

"It's a libretto," she corrected me.

"Gesundheit."

Darian rolled her eyes, but a small smile tugged at the corners of her lips. "A libretto is a script with the music in it," she explained, stopping me at a page where, sure enough, the sheet music for a song interrupted the steady stream of lines.

"Am I going to get to hear you sing?" I asked, beaming at the thought of it. I had never really gotten to hear her, though I knew she was good. She had gotten sick in Burgess, and her voice had suffered for it. There had also been the small matter of her crippling stage fright at the time.

She blushed and looked down at the carpet. "I was thinking that we could just run lines or something," she mumbled.

I gave the libretto another flip through and frowned at her. "This thing is mostly music."

Darian let her shoulders drop in defeat and sighed, "Fine. I guess so."

I gave a whoop of delight and back-flipped onto her bed, laying out the libretto on top of the sheets. "Alright, which songs are yours?" I wondered.

Awkwardly, Darian took a seat next to me in the middle of the bed and crossed her legs. She kept fidgeting, though, as if she couldn't get comfortable. It hadn't occurred to me then that this was _her bed_ in _her room_ , and that I had unthinkingly invaded what she considered her personal space. Still, she made no effort to ask me to leave, so I didn't comment on it. "I'm actually a lead, so I sing in a lot of them. Only about two or so are my own solos," she told me.

"Well, which ones are those?"

" _Notice Me Horton_ and _All For You_ ," she answered. Quickly, I consulted the table of contents to find the first of those songs and flipped to it.

Darian shot me one last pleading look before realizing that there was no getting out of it. Besides, this had been all her idea. "How can I help you rehearse?"

She shrugged. "I guess just read along as I sing and tell me if I mess up a word or something, unless, of course, you can read sheet music and criticize all of my sour notes." I shook my head. Looking at the strange dots and lines arranged on the page, I was all the more proud of Darian for having the ability to decipher their meaning. Music was not a skill that I was blessed with.

Darian took a deep breath to steady herself. Then another. After that, she hummed a few notes until she found the right starting pitch, and then she took one last deep breath before spitting out lyrics at a lightning speed, and I assumed that it was all because she was nervous, but I glanced down at the words on the page and saw that whatever character she was playing appeared to be nervous, as well, and when she slowed and began singing about her faults, I wondered if Darian was a little too in character. In that moment, I could hardly distinguish between her personality and Gertrude's.

Darian seemed to gain confidence as the song went on, as did her character, and I became so enraptured by her voice that I neglected to check for any lyrical mistakes. I'd caught her humming or mumbling a song to herself many a time, but this was different. It was her voice and only her voice, shining in all its glory, and when she soared through a particularly high note, it took my breath away.

The song ended quietly, which was in great contrast to my uproarious applause, which seemed to startle Darian out of character, and realizing what she had just done, her entire face turned red. "Bravo!" I cheered.

"Actually, it's 'Brava' if it's for a female performer," Darian told me, and it seemed like correcting me, like she loved to do, brought back some of her confidence. "But really, what did I mess up? I'm sure I missed a word or two in the beginning."

"Oh, I, uh…I guess I forgot to keep track," I admitted somewhat hesitantly. "I honestly thought you were perfect." There weren't words to express how much I adored her, so I gave her the sweetest smile I could muster. Darian, however, didn't seem too amused by this, and my compliments earned me a pillow to the face.

"Quit it, Jack!" she chuckled, and I did, only because I wanted to survive the night.

She ran through a couple of songs, but we eventually decided around one in the morning that this wasn't helping her get to sleep; however, she did appear to have enjoyed herself, and I was glad that I helped bring a smile to her face. She got up to put the libretto away and suggested, "Maybe we could put on a movie?"

I shrugged. "It's as good an idea as any at this point. What do you have?" Truth be told, I actually didn't get the chance to watch movies that often, and I was a little excited about this. Sure, I had snuck into movie theaters every once in a while in the past hundred years or so, and Jamie or Sophie would sometimes put one on for me, but I hadn't really had the option to do so living in the woods in Burgess all this time.

Darian moved over to her overstuffed bookshelf, where a small corner of it was devoted to a few stacks of DVDs. "Well, I have pretty much every Disney princess movie," she began. I made a face. Sophie had gotten me to join her in a marathon of those sometime last year, and I had no desire to revisit those anytime soon. "I have some musicals, Shrek, Harry Potter, Star Wars…"

"Star Wars?" I repeated, my interest piqued.

"Yeah, the original trilogy," she confirmed.

"It's been a while, but I remember loving those movies. I snuck in and saw them in theaters," I told her.

"In theaters?" Darian gaped, seeming to remember once again that I had been around much longer than I appeared.

"I don't suppose we could watch one?" I said, trying to keep the conversation on course. We could deal with questions later. Right now, I needed to find a way to get her to sleep.

She shrugged. "I guess so. I mean, it's not my favorite, but if you like it, I don't mind."

Darian grabbed her laptop and set to work starting the movie. "If it's not your favorite, why is it in your room?" I wondered.

"My dad made me watch it because it's a classic. My mom did the same with the Harry Potter movies, but I already liked the books, so I didn't mind." The title of the movie suddenly flashed on the screen as trumpets blared, followed soon after by a continuous scroll of words disappearing into a starry background. I caught Darian smile. "It has a great score, at least. You've got to love John Williams," she remarked.

We both scooted back so that we could relax against her headboard with the laptop propped up in our laps, and Darian slipped under the covers so that she wouldn't be too cold sitting next to me. Because of the smallness of the screen, we had to sit very close to each other. Personally, I really liked being so close, but I could feel Darian tensing up beside me, obviously a little uncomfortable with her lack of personal space, but again, she said nothing. I instinctively reached for her hand, not knowing what else to do, and while it didn't seem to do much to ease her anxiety, she didn't pull away, not even when I laced our fingers together and gave what I meant to be a comforting squeeze.

While I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, I saw Darian begin to relax out of the corner of my eye, if only out of sheer boredom. I felt a little bad that she was sitting through a movie that she clearly didn't like, and I was extremely touched that she was doing so for my sake. Eventually, her head began to nod before finally coming to rest against the headboard, and I felt her fingers relax between mine. She was asleep.

Well, that had worked better than I thought.

I figured that I should leave, knowing that Darian would hate it if she found me still in her room when she woke up, but Luke and Obi-Wan had just met Han Solo, my favorite character! Darian would be forgiving if I stuck around for the rest of the movie, right?

As I watched and Darian slept, I let my mind wander during the slower parts of the movie, not that there were many. I wondered how it was that boredom was the thing that had done her in when she had admitted to being bored plenty of times she couldn't sleep. Maybe it had been because she was trying to focus on the movie and hadn't had time to get lost in her thoughts. Or maybe my theory was correct, and that she had been trying so hard to stay awake to enjoy a movie that she had fallen asleep instead. That thought brought a smile to my face.

When the credits started to roll, I delicately unwound our fingers, so that I wouldn't wake her when I left. I closed the laptop and was about to get up and grab my staff when I felt a sudden weight on my shoulder. I looked and saw that Darian had slumped over, her head coming to rest on me. Shoot! I was trapped. The chances of me getting up without waking her were now slim to none, and who knew when I'd be able to get her to go back to sleep again?

I was caught between a rock and a hard place. Do I face the wrath of Darian in the morning or do I interrupt her chance at one good night's sleep? To me, the choice seemed obvious. I could handle a few punches if it meant Darian would feel a little better. I settled in, hoping that maybe she would move again, offering me the chance to escape.

She never did, and I didn't mind.

 **(Okay...so I don't really have a good reason for why it took me so long to update. Don't hate me, but I've had this and a couple of other chapters written up for months now, and I guess I just forgot to post them. I'll keep trying to write ahead, but I'm going to warn you now that I can't really guarantee when exactly I'll update, so I'd like to thank all of the people who have put up with my sporadic schedule for so long and any new readers who have found this story and wish to see it continued. I still fully plan on finishing this, I promise! With that out of the way, I hope you guys like this chapter. There's still a bit of angst, but finally some much needed filler and fluff, especially before the next chapter. I gotta warn you: it's a big one. Please remember to favorite, follow, and review, and again, thank you. It's readers like you who inspire me to continue.)**


	7. Chapter 7: Poor Unfortunate Soul

**Darian**

I woke up to my alarm, which was the first weird thing I noticed, considering that I was usually up and dressed by the time it went off due to my habit of not sleeping. The second weird thing that I noticed was that I was really, really cold. Freezing, even! My face felt numb, and I started shivering almost immediately. Then, I felt something shift beneath my head, and my eyes snapped open at the realization of what must have happened.

I immediately sat up and came face to face with Jack, and I scrambled backwards with a squeak of shock and embarrassment, only to end up falling off of my bed. My head struck the ground first, and never before had I been so glad that my floor was carpeted. I could only hope that the dull thud hadn't alerted my parents. "Are you okay?" Jack called, peering over the edge of the bed, but I could see that he was struggling to hold back a laugh.

"I'm fine!" I breathed quickly, stumbling to my feet and making a beeline for my closet. "I just need to get ready for school." I grabbed the first outfit within my reach and ran to the bathroom, feeling the need to get away from Jack as quickly as possible. As soon as I had shut the door behind me and locked it, I slumped against the sink and took deep breaths, trying to calm myself.

How embarrassing! After stressing the fact that I did not want him to hang around while I slept, I had fallen asleep on him! I chastised myself on letting that happen, then turned my anger on Jack, silently asking why he didn't just leave. Of course, I knew why, but I almost would have preferred him to wake me up than to subject me to this kind of embarrassment. Almost. I'd gotten most of a good night's sleep, which really felt good. I wondered if I was cursed to always go to such extreme lengths for just one night of peace.

No, he would be gone soon, and Pitch would be satisfied, though I could only imagine how angry he was that it was taking me so long to get rid of Jack and the Nightmares that awaited me in revenge. The more I thought about it, the less I wanted Jack to leave. If he stayed, if I told him, there might be some chance that he could fight off Pitch, but I also knew that Jack couldn't be with me forever, and certainly not every night. I had struggled with this all weekend and had come to the conclusion that it was Jack's decision when he should leave. That was our deal.

But then he had left that choice up to me in asking me if I wanted to kiss him! It seemed so cruel. In leaving it up to him, I had at least reassigned some of the blame in this mess, but in the end, it all fell back to me, and I just couldn't make up my mind.

I began pacing back and forth while rubbing some warmth back into my arms as I pondered my predicament. I did this as long as I possibly could before I stopped, sighed, and realized that this was something I needed to deal with later. Life and death could wait. I had to get ready for school.

I hastened through getting dressed and putting on my makeup, and when I fully composed myself, I was ready to face Jack again. I opened the door to find him waiting for me at the foot of my bed, clutching his staff nervously. He stood as I entered. "Hey, I'm real sorry about last night," he began.

I blushed and looked away. "No, I'm sorry. I put you in that position. You were just trying to help," I mumbled.

"So…are we cool?"

I gave a small laugh. "Yeah, we're cool."

"Great!" Jack exclaimed suddenly. "Now that that's out of the way, can I please come to school with you today?"

The question was so strange and so sudden that I stepped back in surprise and was struck speechless. When I recovered slightly, I stated, "No! Of course not!"

"Why?" he whined.

"Because you can be a real child sometimes, and I am _not_ babysitting you today!" I insisted.

"I'll be good! I promise!"

"No."

"But I've never been!"

"Well, maybe you should have gone with Jamie," I said.

Jack looked away sheepishly. "Actually, I have," he admitted slowly. I groaned. "But that was middle school! I've never been to high school."

"It's worse," I tried to tell him.

"If I remember correctly, you once told Jamie the opposite," Jack pointed out.

He had me there. "My answer still stands."

"And I'll get to see Miranda again," he added. Another good point. Miranda would absolutely murder me if I denied her another chance to hang out with Jack.

I looked at Jack's earnest, pleading face, and despite every fiber of my being telling me that this was a terrible, horrible idea, I finally sighed, "Fine. You can tag along, but just for today."

Jack whooped and did a backflip right then and there, knocking one of my porcelain dolls off its shelf. Luckily, we were both fast enough to catch it between the two of us before it could hit the floor and break, and I gently set it back where it belonged. "No wonder you can't sleep with these things watching you. Don't you find them the least bit creepy?" Jack asked with a shudder. He pointedly turned the doll around so that it faced the wall.

Immediately, I set it right. "Let's just get going before we miss the bus." I slung my backpack over my shoulders and rushed down the stairs with Jack sliding down the banister beside me. Dad had already left for work, and Mom was working in the kitchen, finishing preparing my lunch.

"You're running late," my mom commented as I hastily grabbed a pack of toaster pastries and two water bottles from the pantry.

"I slept," I said with a shrug.

Mom smiled and handed me my lunchbox. "Remember, your father and I are meeting some people for dinner this afternoon, so Miranda needs to give you a ride home from rehearsal."

"Got it." I started for the door, but Mom pulled me back.

"Have a good day, Sweetie, and break a leg." With that, she kissed me on the forehead, and I blushed as Jack made a sweet face at the scene.

Jack and I waited on the porch for the bus to arrive, and as we sat on the front steps, I opened the pastries and handed one to him. While we ate, I also took out a pen and marked the caps of the water bottles with our initials so that we wouldn't get them mixed up. I handed Jack his, and he gave me a chocolatey smile before taking a drink.

The bus came to pick me up shortly after, with Jack choosing to fly alongside it instead of riding it with me. I took my usual seat, and while normally I would just stare out the window and zone out, Jack never allowed me the chance. He made such funny faces in the window throughout the whole ride that I had to clamp a hand over my mouth to keep from laughing out loud.

It was going to be a long day.

When we got to school, Jack immediately asked me if we could seek out Miranda in the hallway, but I informed him that since Miranda drove herself to school, she usually arrived later, so instead, I gave him a short tour of the school, so that if he should get bored during my classes – which he most likely would – and decided to wander off, he wouldn't get lost. I walked him through the hallways, showing him the classrooms he would find me in during the day – the chorus room, the theater, etc. – eventually ending up in my first period classroom, which was calculus.

I took my seat at the front of the classroom and began unpacking. "Huh," Jack said thoughtfully, floating into the desk beside me.

"What is it?" I wondered out loud. It was still early, and nobody else had wandered into the classroom yet, so it was safe for us to talk without me looking crazy.

"I would have thought you might sit closer to the back, since you're so shy and all," he remarked. "Aren't you more likely to be noticed up here?"

"Actually, most kids sit near the back to talk to each other where they think the teacher can't hear. If I sit up front, I'm usually left alone unless someone wants to discuss the homework," I explained.

"But what about the teacher? Doesn't he call on you more often?" he asked.

I shook my head. "Usually, teachers assume that the students up front are more willing to pay attention and don't ask us questions very often. They'll actually call on the kids in the back more often because they won't stop talking and bringing attention to themselves."

Jack nodded as he processed the complexities of seating arrangements and looked as if he wanted to ask another question, but before he could, another student joined us in the classroom and took the seat Jack was sitting in, and I heard his sharp intake of breath as the student phased through him as an unbeliever. I gave Jack a concerned look when he had wriggled his way out of the situation, but he waved his hand dismissively, assuring me that he was really fine. I knew that on some level, though, it still bothered him.

The school day passed by uneventfully, much to my surprise. As I expected, Jack found calculus to be exceedingly boring and disappeared during most of it, but he stuck it out through chemistry after hearing the teacher say that as a treat, she would make a gummy bear explode if we got all our work done that day. Jack and Miranda were reunited in chorus class and were inseparable throughout it, and unfortunately, they spent the period coming up with new ways to annoy me, including whispering my name every few seconds to catch my attention, only to smile and wave when I turned around, and Jack summoning a breeze to turn the pages of my sheet music and blow my hair into my face so that I couldn't read it. That was the worst of it, though, and it was certainly not as bad as I had been expecting.

In theatre, we mostly ran through the harmonies of chorus numbers in _Seussical_ for the sake of the ensemble, but towards the end, we ran solos and duets with the leads, and Jack took a break from chatting with Miranda to sit on the piano and listen to me intently. I blushed, but I sang proudly with my fellow leads, happy that at least he would be able to hear the full harmonies in the songs instead of just my part, though I had a feeling that he didn't really care much for all that. Afterwards, I caught Miranda looking between the two of us and raising a suggestive eyebrow, and I childishly stuck my tongue out at her when I was sure that no one was watching.

After school, the three of us headed to the theater for _Seussical_ practice. Since the entire cast was summoned for the afternoon, we spent rehearsal running and fine-tuning the choreography for the bigger numbers, "Biggest Blame Fool" being chief among them. While the vocals were clean after class that day, a few of the dancers still flailed around like awkward noodles on the stage, and I was slapped in the face the first time I came in to say my lines, causing the director to change my entrance so that I was up on a platform with the Cat in the Hat instead of downstage where all the action was. Concerned, Jack approached me backstage when I had a small moment, asking if I needed any ice, but I assured him that I was fine.

During the rehearsal, I was never so glad that my character had little to do in the way of dancing. The director worked the cast hard that day to make up for the lost time that the snow had caused. Miranda, being a Wickersham Brother and having to leap around the stage in every appearance, nearly collapsed towards the end of rehearsal, and even when the ensemble was dismissed, the leads were called back for a costume fitting.

Jared had gotten a lot of work done over the impromptu break and was halfway through with most of the costumes. I tried on the simple blue dress he had created for me, twirling around in the mirror so that I could catch a glimpse of the one-feather tail that was so important to my character. I glanced around and saw June admiring her vibrant red dress that was trimmed with multi-colored feathers and had a slit running up one side. Like me, all she was missing so far was her over-the-top tail.

After Jared finished taking notes on what was left to be done costume-wise, we were finally dismissed. Jack was waiting for me and Miranda by the door of the dressing room and didn't appear to have wandered despite how long we must have taken, and I gave a silent sigh of relief at that. I'd hardly had time before rehearsal to run through the dangers of fooling around backstage with Jack, knowing that the first thing he would want to do was explore. I could only imagine the chaos it would cause if he messed around in the tech booth or with the fly system. Thankfully, it seemed as though all my worries were for nothing, and we left the building for the parking lot, laughing and chatting the whole way there.

"So, Jack," Miranda began, pulling her coat tighter around herself as we travelled down the sidewalk, "if you're still here, how come it isn't snowing?"

"Darian had me promise to make it stop if I was going to stick around a while," he replied.

Miranda shot me a pointed glare. "You mean we could've had a longer break?"

"We have a show to rehearse," I reminded her.

She rolled her eyes and turned back to Jack, deciding it was best to change the subject. "How long are you plannin' to stay, anyway? Will you still be in town for the show?"

Jack glanced at me uncertainly before answering, "I guess that depends."

"Depends on what?"

There was an awkward pause as the both of us tried to figure out how to respond. Neither of us really wanted to explain our deal to her, and we were saved from doing so when a new voice entered into the conversation.

"Well, well, well. What do we have here?"

I froze, rooted to the spot as both Jack and Miranda whirled around to face the newcomer. I kept my back towards the all-too-familiar voice, unable to overcome the sudden, overwhelming wave of fear that swept through me.

 _Pitch._

"Darian," he called out to me, and unable to avoid it any longer, I slowly turned to look at him. I was shaking so bad that I could hardly stand. In fact, curling into a ball and crying seemed incredibly tempting, but to my own amazement, I managed to keep upright. Pitch was standing in the middle of a stretch of grass that ran between the sidewalk and a wooded area at the edge of the campus.

"It's been so long since we last talked. It seems I am never able to catch you alone," he taunted, giving a pointed glance at Jack. "No matter. This will have to do. Do you have anything to say for yourself?"

I remained silent and trembling. Miranda gently shook my shoulder, trying to snap me out of my paralyzed state. "Darian, who is that?" she asked, trying very hard not to show how frightened she really was. Even though she wasn't fully aware of the danger we were in, Pitch always managed to draw out a primal sense of fear in anyone in his presence.

Thankfully, Jack replied for me, since I still had not found my voice. "The bogeyman," he growled, standing protectively in front of the two of us, his staff held at the ready.

"Pitch Black, at your service," Pitch said with a mock smile and bow towards Miranda. Her grip tightened on my shoulder as she began to understand the situation. Still, she remained steady, and I admired her for that.

"Run," Jack ordered.

Miranda, still attempting to wrap her mind around what was going on, replied, "What?"

"Run!"

He didn't have to tell me twice. I tripped over myself in trying to get moving, and if it weren't for Miranda helping me along, I would have fallen flat on my face. We sprinted back towards the school, since we were much closer to it than to the student parking lot, where Miranda's car awaited us. We tugged on the doors, only to find that they were locked. We banged on the windows and shouted, hoping for at least a janitor to come along, but we were quite alone, the last people to leave the building.

"This can't be happening! This can't be happening!" I chanted, pacing frantically in a circle before my legs finally gave out from under me, and I sank to my knees on the pavement. "He's come for me."

"Why?" Miranda asked. I kept my eyes trained on the sidewalk and didn't answer. "Whatever!" she cried in a tone that informed me that this was not going to be the last time she asked me. "We need to try and make it to my car." Angrily, she hauled me to my feet, and we took off back down the sidewalk.

 **Jack**

"That was hardly necessary," Pitch told me as I watched the girls run off before turning back to him. My staff glowed threateningly. "I'm not here to fight you. We both know that I'm not strong enough right now. I simply have some business to discuss with Darian." He stepped forward, as if to follow her down the sidewalk, but I intercepted him.

"What kind of business could she possibly have with you?" I spat.

Pitch raised an eyebrow, which was impressive, considering he didn't have any. "Oh? I would have thought that she must have told you, seeing as you're still here."

I gritted my teeth in annoyance at how he danced around the subject, taunting me. "Told me what?"

Pitch smiled and let out a malicious chuckle. "This is too good!"

"Pitch!" I growled, holding up my staff. "Get to the point!"

"Darian made a deal with me," he stated slowly.

Unable to believe such an accusation, I finally snapped and attacked him. "You're lying!" I shouted. "She would never!"

Pitch darted out of the way of my icy blasts, all while saying, "Oh, but she did! Several weeks ago, actually. I believe it was the night before she left Burgess."

"No!" I kept attacking him all while memories of Darian's strange behavior since that night came flooding back to me. I had suspected that she was hiding something, but not this. Never this!

Pitch aimed blasts of black sand my way, and one lucky shot grazed me and managed to knock me out of the sky. He continued to gloat. "In fact, the only reason I'm here right now is because she neglected to hold up her end of the bargain, and she must pay for it. Ah! Here she comes now."

I watched in horror as Darian and Miranda came running back this way, heading for a short set of concrete stairs that led down into the lower parking lot that was reserved for student use. Miranda, the more athletic of the two, was in the lead and was already at the bottom of the stairs by the time Darian even came near the top. Pitch drew back one arm as if pulling on the string of an invisible bow before releasing a deadly arrow of Nightmare sand aimed directly at her.

I flew after it, horrifying memories of Sandy being struck flashing back to me, but I was too late. The arrow hit her squarely in the back and dissolved into her just as she leapt off the top stair. She could only let out a short, strangled scream before collapsing. I managed to catch her before she fell to the concrete, and I laid her down on the pavement at the bottom of the stairs. "Darian!" Miranda called, as she ran back towards us, but I motioned for her to stay where she was. It was too dangerous.

I tried to hold Darian still as she writhed on the pavement, and I repeated her name over and over and over again, but she seemed unable to hear me. She only continued to flail and gasp for breath, all while her eyes remained wide, seeing only whatever Nightmares she was currently suffering through. I knew that she didn't have long. Pitch's arrow had only taken about a minute to temporarily kill the Sandman, an Immortal, and Darian was only human.

I looked up to see Pitch strutting confidently down the stairs towards us. "Please! Stop this!" I cried out. "I'll do anything."

Pitch grinned at this, reveling in how I was completely at his mercy. I was sure the Guardians would be angry with me if they saw how weak I was in this moment, but I couldn't help it. I would do anything for Darian. "That's a tempting offer, Jack, but I've already accomplished what I came here to do. There's nothing I could really need as of right now, unless…"

"Unless what?" I asked hastily. Darian's struggles were continuously growing weaker, and I knew Pitch was going to draw this out as long as possible to make me desperate.

"Unless I had a guarantee that I wouldn't be pursued by you after I saved her. Like I said, I'm not strong enough to really defeat you yet, so if you would be so kind as to hand over your staff for a moment, I'd be happy to help," Pitch explained.

There was no time to debate it. Without hesitation, I handed it over, but not without saying, "You know that I won't be powerless for very long."

He snatched my staff from my hands with a triumphant grin. "No. Just long enough."

With a wave of his hand, the Nightmare sand flew from Darian's body and disappeared. Darian finally lay still, and her eyes drifted shut. She would have appeared dead if it wasn't for the frantic rise and fall of her chest.

I didn't have long to rejoice in her safety, though. Almost as soon as the sand cleared, Pitch snapped my staff over his knee, and I was suddenly racked with excruciating pain, followed by an agonizing hollowness that came with the loss of my magic. I could not stifle a small cry as I doubled over. My staff and I had some sort of magical connection that even I didn't fully understand, and he couldn't hurt the staff without hurting me or depriving me of the full extent of my powers, as we had discovered nearly three years ago in a particularly lonely spot in Antarctica.

Pitch tossed the two halves of my staff to the bottom of the stairs, but I was in too much pain to retrieve them. "See you soon," Pitch said ominously. With that, he disappeared in a cloud of black sand.

The next thing I knew, Miranda was shaking me awake, crying, "Are you alright?"

I sat up, doing my best to ignore the dull ache that ran through my entire body. "Yeah," I groaned. "I just blacked out a little there." I had done the same thing the first time this had happened, and I had hoped to not repeat the experience.

"What about Darian? Is she - ?"

"She's alive," I assured her. We both crouched over Darian then to check over her. She was still passed out on the pavement, which was reasonable. A near-death experience was sure to be exhausting. All things considered, she appeared to be okay, but it didn't seem like she was resting easily. Her face seemed troubled still, and I could only assume that it was because of a few lingering Nightmares.

"Could you hand me my staff?" I requested, and for once, Miranda silently complied; however, I could see the questions in her eyes, but she knew better than to ask them at a time like this.

I held the two halves of my staff together until the crack between them began to glow and mend itself, and before too long, I felt energy surge through me until I felt as good as knew. The torture I had endured became only a memory. After making sure that I could both walk and fly with ease, I lifted Darian very carefully and carried her to Miranda's car, making sure that I didn't jostle her too much. I climbed into the backseat with her and held her while Miranda drove us the short distance to Darian's house.

When we arrived, Miranda found the hidden key to the front door and held it open for me as I flew in with Darian. I laid her on the couch and both Miranda and I collapsed into chairs from exhaustion. We were silent for several minutes until Miranda broke it by saying, "I have so many questions that I don't know where to start."

I shrugged tiredly. "I can try to answer some, but honestly, I'm not really sure what just happened."

Seeing that I was almost as confused as she was, Miranda shot me a brief pitying look. "I guess first I should ask if you're really okay. What happened with you back there?" She nodded towards my staff to make it clear what she was referring to.

I gave her my best attempt at a smile. "Yes. I'm fine. It's just something that happens to me if my staff is broken. My magic is connected to it, and it's really painful whenever that connection is ripped away. At least, that's the only explanation the Guardians and I can figure out."

Miranda nodded, appearing satisfied with that answer, and she let her worry for me melt again into anxiety at the whole situation we had found ourselves in. "So that was Pitch?" she asked. I nodded, and her expression changed into something like anger as she glanced over at her unconscious friend. "I mean, you told me how bad he was, and Darian even told me about what happened, but I never could have imagined…I guess it's one of those things you don't really know until you've seen it. He's horrible!" Miranda then swore loudly, something which I guessed Darian wouldn't have allowed if she were awake.

When she had calmed down slightly, Miranda said, "Darian said that he came for her. Do you know what she meant by that?"

My mind flashed back to what Pitch had claimed - that Darian had made a deal with him and hadn't kept up her end – and after what Miranda had just said, I wondered if there was more truth in it than I had originally believed. My hope that it was all just a lie to get under my skin fell even farther when I remembered that Pitch very rarely outright lied, though he would state whatever parts of the truth were most likely to hurt people.

After thinking all this through, I hesitantly replied, "I don't know." I wasn't much better than Darian at hiding things, though, and Miranda raised an eyebrow skeptically. "I think there are some things about what just happened that only Darian can explain," I added.

We turned to watch her a while, perhaps both of us wishing that she would wake up right then and answer all of our questions, but she stayed just as still as before, and after a few minutes of silence, we sighed in unison and Miranda stood to leave.

"You don't have to go," I told her, grabbing her hand as she walked by. "I'm sure she wouldn't mind seeing her friend when she wakes up." Miranda gave me a hard look, letting me know that she understood my meaning and wasn't pleased by it. Truth be told, I was somewhat afraid of confronting her by myself and had hoped that Miranda might stay to act as a sort of buffer if need be. I was scared of what Darian might tell me because surely, it would be impossible to continue hiding after all that had just happened.

"No," she said firmly. "I should get home before my mom starts to worry about me, and besides, it looks like you two have a lot to discuss, and I would hate to be a burden. Darian can explain everything to me later. I don't need to get in the middle of something that I clearly don't understand or have any business gettin' involved in." I let go of her hand and looked away in shame, understanding her meaning completely. She headed for the door, calling, "I hope to see you soon, Jack."

I heard the door slam shut, and I was left to wait.

 **Darian**

I opened my eyes for only a brief moment before a sharp pain in my head made me close them again. I groaned and pressed the heels of my palms against my eyes. It had been brief, but I had seen enough to know that it was already dark when I woke up.

Gradually, I relaxed and rubbed my forehead to try and lessen my headache. It didn't do much good, but I eventually felt well enough to open my eyes again and glance around the room. My gaze finally came to rest on Jack, who was sitting in a chair across from where I laid on the couch. "You're awake," he remarked with both surprise and relief.

I wasn't sure if there was any way to respond to that, so I kept silent and attempted to push myself up into a sitting position. My arms trembled and made the movement very difficult, and with how attentive he usually was, I half-expected Jack to fly over and assist me. He remained where he was, however, and after much struggling, I managed to sit up, though I was left exhausted by the effort, and my headache returned with such a force that I bent over with my head in my hands until the worst of it passed.

"What happened?" I asked after a while. I could remember panicking at Pitch's appearance. I remembered running to Miranda's car and someone shouting as I approached the stairs, but nothing after that.

"Pitch attacked. He hit you with a lot of Nightmare sand. Darian, you almost died…" At this, Jack choked up and was unable to speak for several minutes. I let this new information sink in, and no matter how hard I tried, I couldn't feel any relief at the fact that I lived, only troubled at the fact that I had come so close to death. I chose to put off sorting through my own feelings and turned my thoughts to Jack's, pitying him for what he must have felt. He had told me the particulars of the Sandman's death and resurrection, and I couldn't imagine what he must have gone through after nearly reliving the experience. But I couldn't help but wonder: how had I survived?

Before I could ask, Jack finally composed himself and said, "I was hoping that you could explain the rest."

"I'm not sure I understand what you mean," I told him, but despite my confusion, I could feel my anxiety rising.

"Do you know why he came in the first place? Why he tried to kill you?" he asked. As his voice rose in apparent frustration, the temperature in the room dropped.

I shivered and looked away. "Maybe he was trying to get to you through me," I lied. "He knows we care for each other, and it's not like he hasn't done it befo-"

"Pitch told me something," Jack interrupted, having no patience to sit through my obvious lies. "He said that you made a deal with him."

My face must have gone entirely white, and my eyes widened in fear. As my heart hammered against my ribs, I worried that I might pass out again from the extreme emotion I was filled with. He _knew_.

Jack studied my expression and took my silence as an answer, and for a moment, I thought I could hear both our hearts breaking. Everything I had done to protect him – or rather, to protect myself, for my actions had been, in part, motivated by a selfish desire to preserve his good opinion of me – was slipping rapidly through my fingers, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I was helpless. How could I have done this?

Jack stood from his chair and began angrily pacing about the room, leaving a trail of frost in his wake. "I'm such an idiot. What was this deal?" he asked, gritting his teeth. When I hesitated to answer, he repeated the question again, only much louder, and I cowered on the couch. We had fought plenty of times before this, but I wasn't sure that I had seen him truly angry until that moment, and to have all of that rage directed at only me was utterly terrifying.

 _Nice, Darian_ , I mentally scolded myself. _You managed to tick off a force of nature._

"Pitch said," I began slowly and on the verge of tears, "that if I promised to stay away from you, he wouldn't give me as many Nightmares, but if I refused to comply, it would only get worse for me. He knew that we were close and thought it would be a sort of revenge if he got me to break your heart."

"If we were so _close_ ," he spat, "how could you have agreed to something like that?"

"I was scared!" I protested. Jack wasn't satisfied with this answer, and I couldn't bear the disdainful way he looked at me. "Jack, please!" I begged, searching for some kind of sympathy in him, but there was nothing there but hurt and anger. "I know it was selfish, sparing myself pain at your expense, but what was I supposed to do?"

"You should have told me!" he shouted, and the outburst must have drained him of what was left of his energy after the events of that day because in the next moment, he felt the need to lean heavily on the mantle. "I could have protected you."

"No, you couldn't," I said with a certainty that surprised both of us. "Jack, you are a Guardian of _Childhood_ , not just of _me_. You are responsible for the happiness of millions of children all over the world, and you can't care for them while watching over me every second of every day to make sure that I'm safe from Pitch. And even if you tried, can you imagine how guilty I would feel if someone else got hurt just because you were with me? I'm not going to pretend that what I did wasn't bad, but I'm not supposed to be the hero. _You_ are."

If my reasoning got through to him, he refused to show it. He stood completely still where he was, watching me with a continuous wounded frown, and if my heart hadn't already broken earlier, I was sure that his expression in that moment would have broken it then. As it was, I continued, though in a quieter voice, "Not to mention the fact that even if I wasn't in any danger, it wouldn't matter. I've told you before why we can't be together. You're immortal. I'm not. It would have to end eventually. I thought that it might save us both a lot of pain if I just ended it now."

After hearing this again but seeing it in a new light with what he now knew about my situation, Jack angrily pushed off from the mantle and started for the back porch, scaring off the cat as he did. "Obviously, you were wrong," he grumbled as he took up his staff.

"Jack, wait!" I called. Hastily, I stumbled to my feet and chased after him, catching up just as he leapt onto the railing to take off. The exertion left me out of breath, and I had to brace myself on my knees for several moments before I could speak again. Jack glared at me impatiently. "Where are you going?"

"Away," he answered simply, but with all of the contempt in the world. "Isn't that what you always wanted?"

"No! I mean, yes, but not like this! I'm sorry, Jack. I really am. I never wanted to hurt you," I insisted.

"You know, that's pretty hard to believe right now," he said, shaking his head. "I should never have come here."

Angry at his refusal to listen to my apologies, I huffed, "Well, at least we agree on one thing." Jack turned to leave again, and despite how hopeless our situation was, despite how angry I still felt, I couldn't bear to watch him go, not like this, and I searched for anything I could say to get him to stay, or at least, delay his departure. "Aren't you forgetting something?"

"What?" he hissed through his teeth, barely holding himself together.

"Our deal," I reminded him, though I instantly saw that it was the wrong thing to say. It took him a moment to realize what I was implying, and when he did, I saw his anger rise again, accompanied by a thick layer of ice spreading along the railing.

He fixed a cold glare on me, and though he trembled with rage, he managed to keep his voice eerily calm. "Do you really think, after what you've done, that I would want to kiss you now?" He shook his head again, and without saying another word, he launched into the air and flew off as fast as he could, disappearing into the night.

I watched him go, and when it was all over, I let my gaze travel to the moon, and if it were possible, it almost seemed to be disappointed in me, at what I had done. As if it couldn't bear to look at me any longer, it quickly hid behind a cloud, and I found myself mad at the moon, of all things! If he was so ashamed of me, why hadn't the Man in the Moon told me what to do earlier? I huffed and stormed inside, slamming the door behind me before stomping up the stairs to my bedroom, where I promptly collapsed on my bed and cried myself to sleep.

 **(Whoops! I disappeared again. It's been a little crazy around here, but rest assured, I have been working on chapters since I've been gone. How do monthly updates sound? I think I might be able to handle that. Anywho, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter, where Darian's mistakes catch up to her and Jack finally learns the truth in the worst possible way. Be sure to favorite, follow, and review, and keep a lookout for the next chapter, in which much angst ensues.)**


	8. Chapter 8: All For You

**Darian**

That night, for the first and only time in the weeks that followed, I dreamt of nothing. I stood in an infinite abyss of blackness, and despite having no evidence of any imminent threat, I felt scared. Still, I retained enough sense to realize that I must be dreaming, and while that wasn't much of a comfort to me, it at least kept me calm.

Even though I knew it was all a dream, I quickly found that I could do nothing to change it. I tried to imagine every happy, positive thing and bring it into the empty space, but it remained bare and foreboding.

"Pitch!" I called, certain that this must be his doing. My voice filled the void for a long minute, echoing back to me and distorting my words. The bogeyman did not appear. "He's gone! He left me! Are you happy now? Are you satisfied?" The word "satisfied" repeated itself over and over again, taunting me and taking quite a long time to completely fade away. I screamed my frustration and began crying anew, and I remained like that until I woke up the next morning.

My head still ached terribly when I woke up, and every part of me felt sore and weak. That, accompanied by an overwhelming depression that I found myself in, made me unable to stir from my bed, and when my mom came up to check on me to see what was taking so long, I managed to convince her that I was sick for the day and needed to skip school. With how horrible I felt, it wasn't too much of a lie.

Throughout the day, my mom tried to get me to eat something, but I only managed to nibble on some toast before even the action of chewing became exhausting, and I quickly lost what little of my appetite was left. To avoid any further attempts at making me feel better, I managed to drag myself out of bed and practically crawl to the shower, where I sat in the tub and cried for nearly an hour as I let the water run over me. When my tears were done, and the water had gone cold, I finished bathing and went straight back to bed, wrapped in nothing but my robe, not even bothering to brush through my hair.

After that, my sadness seemed to lose some of its edge, and I fell into a sort of numbness, as if all of my emotion had been spent over this. I was drained, incapable of feeling much of anything more, and so I contented myself with sighing and staring at the ceiling for the whole of the afternoon until my dad came home. He came up and rubbed my back, asking how I was feeling. "A little better," I replied tiredly, and this seemed to satisfy him. He smiled, kissed me on the forehead, and left the room to allow me to rest.

That night, having no desire to go to sleep, I sat up all night and worked on the homework that I had neglected to do the day before after all the exciting events that happened in the afternoon. I decided that I must go to school in the morning. I had _Seussical_ rehearsal again, and students weren't allowed to attend afterschool activities if they had been absent in more than half of their classes on the same day. Besides, this had been the deal all along. I was supposed to act as if I had never known Jack, and I was going to start right then.

School somehow seemed a little less tedious when I went through it in a sort of emotionless daze. I worked my way through math and science mechanically, and I had gone through both at such a steady pace with so little excitement or interruption that I quickly managed to catch up with what I had missed the previous day. In chorus class, I took my seat, nodded at June as she gave me a brief smile, and got straight to work studying some new sheet music. Only when I saw Miranda stride eagerly through the door did a sharp pang of fear breach my numb haze as I realized how many questions she would have for me and how unwilling I was to answer any of them. I caught myself staring at her in horror as she took her seat near me.

Noticing my expression and probably how ill I still looked from the attack, Miranda leaned over and whispered, "Are you alright?"

"No," I sighed, figuring that it would be pointless to try and lie to her about this fact. She was at least partially aware of what I had gone through, so my answer was acceptable to her.

"Do you wanna talk about it?" she asked gently.

"No." Without another word, I returned to staring intently at the music. Miranda grew uncharacteristically silent and didn't say anything else on the subject, knowing better than to push me on something like this, even though I knew she had to be dying to ask me about everything.

The rest of the school day passed without incident, and I continued going through the motions without anyone taking much notice until rehearsal that evening, where I was running through "Notice Me Horton." I had hardly finished my last note when the director called my name.

"You sound beautiful, Darian, but I need more from you emotionally. Your facial expressions seem kind of dead today," she remarked.

I took the criticism quietly, not bothering to offer up the excuse of just having a bad day as so many other kids tended to do. No excuses. This fault was all on me, and it was my job to correct it. I wasn't sure that I did much better the rest of rehearsal, but the director didn't give me any other directions that day.

Miranda waited for my mother with me after rehearsal, but she said nothing the entire time we stood together in the parking lot. Every so often, I would catch her eyes searching my face for some kind of life in it, but I remained silent, and so did she. When my mom finally arrived, I noticed that she stayed protectively at my side until I had climbed in the car, at which point she offered up a quick "See you tomorrow" before running off to her car.

The rest of the week rushed by in a blur, and before I knew it, I was leaving Saturday rehearsal with Miranda, since my mom spent this time on weekends running errands. As we were walking through the parking lot (well, I was shuffling along while Miranda kept a quick, anxious pace), she turned to me and commented, "I haven't seen Jack around, lately. What's he been up to?"

"He's gone," I replied simply, keeping my eyes focused straight ahead.

"Wait, what? Gone?"

"Yes. Gone."

"What do you mean by that?" she asked.

"I mean that he's gone, as in he is never coming back!" To my dismay, my voice cracked a little at my exclamation, and I felt tears sting at the corners of my eyes. I pushed on ahead a little to compose myself before Miranda caught back up.

"I don't suppose you wanna talk about it?" she offered hopefully.

"No."

And that was the end of that conversation.

Another week went by, during which we endured a sudden heat wave. It seemed as though nature was trying to make up for the week of unnaturally cold weather we'd had recently. My grades were kept up throughout that week, most likely due to my constant studying to keep my mind off of everything that was troubling me. If I wasn't at school or rehearsing, I was reading either a textbook or one of the novels I kept stacked near my bed for sleepless nights, of which I also had plenty.

I rarely slept in that time, and when I did, it was hardly anything more than a small catnap, from which I would always wake up suddenly, feeling worse than before. The few times I had endeavored to gain a full night's sleep, I had been jolted awake by Nightmares which I couldn't be sure were caused by Pitch. They were all the same: retellings of my argument with Jack or my near-death experience, and reliving either of those moments always caused me to shed a few more tears before I would lie back down and stare up at the ceiling for the rest of the night, trying to shove any emotion into that little box at the back of my mind, whether it was happy or sad. Anything was too much for my heart to handle in that moment.

My health started to suffer a bit from my lack of sleep and want of an appetite. I hadn't realized my eating habits had gotten so bad until I put on my costume for the first time since that fateful day and watched Jared nearly have a heart attack at how it was suddenly slightly too large on me. While he set to work pinning it until it looked right, I gaped at myself in the mirror, wondering how I had gotten so bad. I had always been petite, but my figure seemed to have been reduced to sticks, and incredibly dark circles framed my eyes that were so stubborn that no amount of makeup could fully conceal them. I really looked like a zombie after acting as one all this time, stumbling around completely dead inside.

When Miranda drove me home from the end of that Saturday rehearsal, she locked the doors and refused to let me out in my driveway, deciding that she'd had enough and needed to confront me about my behavior. "Darian, you're scarin' me," she admitted after a short pause. "I overheard your conversation with Jared. You've lost weight in just about a week and a half, which means you're not eatin' well, and I can see that you're sleepin' even less than usual." At this, I looked away to hide my face and rested my aching head on the window.

"You hardly even talk when you're not compelled to, not even to me, and I might be the only person you _can_ talk to about all of this, even if I still don't quite understand it all like you do," she continued. "So please, won't you tell me what happened?"

"You know what happened," I muttered. "I nearly died. It's not exactly something I can get over easily."

"I know," she said, gently resting her hand on my shoulder for a brief moment. "But there's something else, something you're not telling me."

When I didn't reply for a long time, she added, "You know, I talked to Jamie." I slowly turned to look at her at this revelation. "I sent him a message on Facebook a few days ago. He said that Jack has been hangin' around up there, lately, when he's not with the Guardians. When I told him about what you were going through, he said he'd call you, but apparently, you never answered." I thought back and recalled ignoring a phone call from Jamie, having no desire to explain our situation to him and also ruin his good opinion of me, as selfish as it was. "He also told me that Jack's been actin' strange, too, but he won't say what happened between the two of you because surely, somethin' must have happened, and I refuse to let you out of this car until you talk about it."

I silently stared her down, resolving not to say anything about the matter now out of sheer stubbornness, but my exhaustion made me weak, and it wasn't too long before I broke under the pressure. "We had a fight," I confessed reluctantly.

"Why?" Miranda prodded.

"Because I lied to him." Miranda waited a moment for me to explain this. "That day, when Pitch attacked, he was coming after me because I had broken a deal I made with him back in Burgess. The deal was that if I stayed away from Jack, Pitch would stay away from me. If I refused or told Jack about it, things were only going to get worse. At the time, I thought I had made the best choice for myself, even if it wasn't morally right. It's true that at that point in time I had already started to care for Jack, and he for me, but I thought it would be saving us both even worse pain further down the line by breaking whatever it was we had off."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Miranda asked, anger adding an edge to her tone that riled me up more.

"He's an Immortal!" I stated. "I'm not. It was just impossible. I thought it was for the best. Jack obviously didn't. I thought I was getting over him, but he just showed up here for my birthday, and all of these feelings just came back, and I didn't want him to leave, but I was scared of what would happen if I told him about the deal. Then, Pitch showed up and told him before I could work up the nerve, and he was mad. I can't blame him for being angry, though. This is all my own fault."

Miranda was silent for a moment as she processed all of this information, until finally, she sighed and shook her head angrily at me. "I can't believe this. I don't even know what to say," she muttered.

"Then, would you mind letting me out of the car?" I said impatiently.

"Do you know what your problem is, Darian?"

"I have a lot of those. Which one are you talking about this time?" I asked, folding my arms over my chest.

"You're afraid," she stated. I couldn't resist the urge to roll my eyes. "You spend too much time worrying about the future that you disregard what you and others feel in the present. You refuse to let yourself fall in love with someone now because you're scared of gettin' your heart broken later, and probably worst of all, you would rather break someone's heart now to save yourself from that pain, which is somethin' I honestly never believed you capable of doing. You like Jack, and you know that he would do everything within his power to help you, so why not let yourself be with him, if only for now?"

"What would be the point?" I nearly screamed with tears in my eyes, not wanting to be criticized any longer. "I can't be a part of his world, of all of this weirdness! Every time I try, I always get hurt. I almost died! I won't pretend that my actions weren't selfish or unheroic, but being the hero is not my job – it's Jack's! I can't pretend to be something that I'm not, and I'm not someone who belongs in a world of magic and monsters." I took a deep breath and repeated with a shrug, "What would be the point?"

Miranda only glowered at me, as if I should know the answer, and maybe I really did, but I was so emotionally unbalanced at the time that I couldn't think clearly at all. Without another word, she unlocked the car, and I grabbed my stuff and hurried inside the house without a single backwards glance. My knees shook and crumbled beneath me as I heard her drive away, and I collapsed against the front door and burst into fresh tears when before I thought that I had run dry, and I could only hope that I had not driven another friend away.

Even though I couldn't help but be mad at Miranda for criticizing me, I couldn't deny that her claims had merit, and I considered them as I laid in my bed that night. This entire time, I had avoided facing my feelings, not wanting to suffer any more from my guilt, but that night, for the first time in a long while, I chose to work through all that I felt, despite the pain that it caused me.

I allowed myself to realize how much I had truly come to care for Jack and how much the loss of his affection bothered me. I felt the guilt of my wrongful decision in full force instead of dismissing it as the best practical option, and I let myself be sorry for it. I turned over and over from regret to sorrow to anger to fear, and only when I had resolved to do my best to atone for my actions, even if I might never see Jack again, could I finally rest.

There were no Nightmares, only a peaceful silence that I had not felt in the longest time, and I woke up feeling more refreshed than ever. I took a deep breath, remembering my resolution, and walked downstairs to go eat breakfast and start a new day.

No more excuses.

 **Jack**

I had been flying for quite a long time before my emotions finally overcame me and forced me to land. Up until that point, I had managed to keep my powers, which often responded to my emotional state, in check, but unfortunately for the people living in that area, I stirred up quite a blizzard where I stopped. I really couldn't help it, though. I was just so angry and upset, and it was impossible for me to hold it back any longer, so I perched in a sturdy tree and let the storm rage on around me while I wallowed in my misery.

Normally, when I got like this, I would fly down to Antarctica, where it wouldn't really matter if I kicked up such a fuss, and where my presence would go largely unnoticed, except by a few unfortunate penguins that crossed my path. Of course, that had been when I was always alone and miserable more often, when I didn't have a friend in the world to confide in. Now, with the Guardians and Jamie in my life, I couldn't remember the last time I had been this upset, and I realized that instead of heading to Antarctica, I had flown north towards Jamie's house, as if intending to confide in him.

I quickly resolved not to do that and started travelling in a new, random direction. Jamie loved his cousin, and I was not going to be the one to hurt him by being the bearer of bad news. Darian hadn't even wanted to tell me what she had done, so she surely intended to keep it a secret from him, as well.

I felt another wave of sadness and pain as I thought about how she had lied to me, after how I thought we had come to trust each other. Something between us had broken, and in my despair, I highly doubted that it could ever be fixed.

After soaring above the ocean for quite a long time, wandering this way and that, I started to wonder where, in fact, I was intending to go. Not to Jamie's house, for sure, and certainly nowhere near Darian. I would usually suffer my burdens in silence, but I came to realize that I really didn't want to be alone. I considered heading up to the North Pole, where I was always welcome, and I definitely needed to report my run-in with Pitch, but I wasn't sure that I had quite calmed down enough to face North and hide my feelings. I decided to head towards the Tooth Palace, to the only person whom I could speak truthfully to about Darian.

Tooth was busy when I arrived, of course, so I was greeted immediately by Baby Tooth, who buzzed up to me to give me a tiny hug. I couldn't help but smile as she squeaked about her excitement in seeing me again, it had been so long! Still, I found it hard to keep up a cheerful conversation, and before too long, I requested that she fly off and tell Tooth that I had come to visit. While she ran off to fetch her, I flew down to the small pond in the clearing and paced back and forth over the water where I wouldn't be swarmed by my little adoring fans.

It was several minutes before Tooth found a moment to slip away and see me, and seeing that I was agitated, she didn't greet me with the usual hug. "Jack, how have you been?" she asked sweetly, but she could barely disguise her concern.

"I've been better," I confessed, floating over to the grass.

Tooth sighed and sat down next to me, sending off her usual entourage of fairies with a wave of her hand. "What happened with Darian?" she asked with slight irritation. I knew it wasn't her favorite topic, but she was the only one who had figured out what was going on and therefore, the only one I could talk to about it.

"Why do you immediately assume it has to do with Darian?" I said a bit defensively.

Tooth rolled her eyes and started counting the reasons on her fingers. "Because you always go to North about any Guardian troubles. Because you never stay mad at Jamie long enough to come to me. Because I'm the only one you talk to about her. Because I never saw you distressed like this before you met her. Because the last time you were like this – "

"Alright! You win!" I interrupted her. "Yes, it's about Darian." Tooth let her hands fall into her lap and waited for me to continue, so I went on to recount everything that had happened. I told her about how she suddenly broke off our friendship(?), about the near week we spent together, and about Darian's deal with Pitch and our fight over it. Tooth patiently listened to all of this with a grave expression.

When I had finished, Tooth shook her head, almost in disbelief. "A deal with Pitch Black, of all things? From what you've told me about her, I could never have imagined her doing such a thing."

"Me neither. And then she lied to me about it!" I cried, throwing my hands up in agitation.

"I'm really sorry to hear all this, Jack," Tooth murmured, placing a comforting hand on my shoulder, "but I can sort of see where Darian's coming from."

I tore away from her hand and stared at her in shock. "What?" I gasped.

"Don't get me wrong!" she covered quickly. "I'm not saying that what she did wasn't awful, but she's right about one thing. Humans and Immortals – it's tricky, to say the least. They die; we don't. I tried to warn you about it from the beginning. Getting this close to a human is hard because you know that one day, you're going to have to say goodbye."

I stared sadly down at the grass as I thought about this. "I know. It's just…that never really mattered to me. I don't care about that when I'm with her. I just live in the moment. I guess I never really thought about it."

"Obviously, she did." After a moment of letting this sink in, Tooth added, "Maybe it's for the best, Jack. Believe me, I know it doesn't seem like it now, but maybe one day you'll make peace with it. At the very least, you two will have to move on for Jamie's sake."

"What do I do now?" I wondered.

"Well, the first thing you should do is report that you saw Pitch. You don't have to add in any details, but North needs to make the other Guardians aware that he appears to be growing more active. After that, you should just take time to be yourself again: the Guardian of Fun."

I stood, offering a weak smile at Tooth. "Thanks for listening. How are you so good at this?"

"Years of experience," she replied with a weak laugh. "I'm really not that great at this, Jack. It just helps to have an unbiased third party."

I shook my head and embraced her. "Shut up. You're the greatest," I insisted. Tooth blushed and mumbled something about needing to get back to work, though she said it so fast that I hardly understood it at first. I flew off then and did exactly as she told me in reporting to North, but what was I going to do for fun?

It was at this time that I finally decided to fly to Jamie's. Tooth had helped me to blow off some steam, and I felt confident that I could face him with an unfaltering smile. It was nighttime in Burgess when I arrived, but Jamie was still up when I rapped on his window. It was hard to believe how much I missed the kid after only about a week or so, and I was extremely happy to see him again. Of course, I didn't count on the first thing out of his mouth being, "So, how is Darian?"

I tried my hardest to keep my face straight as I stammered, "Oh, you know. Same old, same old, I guess. I mean, she was still alive when I left, so I assume she's okay."

Jamie was utterly unamused. "I'm being serious, Jack! I want to know! I haven't heard anything from Darian for over a week, now, and after that snowstorm about two days ago, I'm guessing you didn't come straight here after you left Georgia."

Yikes! Had it really been days? I hadn't realized that I had been moping around so much. "Sorry. I had some Guardian business to take care of," I told him nervously.

Jamie didn't seem to completely believe me, which was wise, since I wasn't completely telling the truth. I wondered if all twelve year olds were as perceptive. Still, he rolled his eyes and let it slide. "What did you guys do down there?" he asked, pressing for information.

I shrugged, figuring out how to phrase things to sound as nonchalant as possible. No need to worry him about stupid details. "Not much, I guess. We just sort of hung out," I answered.

"Did she like her present?"

"The snow? Yeah. Well, she was kind of mad at first. She has a big show coming up, and they have to have extra rehearsals to make up for the snow days."

" _Seussical_ , right? She mentioned it to me on Facebook a while back. Did you get to watch her rehearse at all?"

"A little," I replied. "She sang a few of her solos to me, and I hung out backstage during one rehearsal. They were mostly working on the dances."

"Cool," Jamie said, and our awkward small talk descended into an even more awkward silence.

"So…" I began, anxiously rocking back and forth on my heels. "I should let you sleep. It's probably past your bedtime, and you've got school and stuff in the morning."

"You could just give us a snow day," he suggested. "It's not like you haven't done it before."

"I think you've skipped enough school," I told him. "And if Darian found out that you requested it, she'd be mad at you, too."

Jamie caught my minor slip of the tongue, and I winced as he asked, "Is she mad at you about something?"

"When isn't she?" I responded, trying to dodge the question.

"Jack, what did you do?"

"Why do you immediately assume it's my fault?"

"Because last time – "

"Nothing!" I cried, not eager to launch into another list of reasons that day. "She just – " I found that I had no idea how to continue that sentence. No matter how mad I was with Darian, it wasn't my job to destroy her cousin's esteem for her. "Just trust me when I say that it's something I would rather have Darian explain. I gotta go." I flew back out the window without caring to close it, as usual, but not before leaving behind a conspicuous patch of ice in Jamie's floor that had formed in a momentary lapse of control.

Over the course of a week, I stayed in Burgess, providing the children there enough snow to play with, but not enough to cancel school over. Jamie, sensing that something serious had happened when I was gone, chose not to bring up the subject again, especially not around his friends, who hung out at his house until dark to have their fill of fun times with me. For a few brief moments that were far between, I felt like myself again, laughing and carefree, but most times, I knew that I was off, that after a while, I only kept smiling for the sake of my company. I didn't take Jamie flying often because I knew he had questions that I couldn't answer, and I couldn't fill the silence of the night long enough to prevent them from being asked.

After that week had passed, I flew into Jamie's room at night to see what he was up to, only to find him sitting cross-legged on his bed and staring at his laptop, his face tight with concern. "What's wrong?" I asked, plastering on a smile to disguise my worry.

"Do you know someone named Miranda?" he inquired. "It says on Facebook that she's one of Darian's friends. She certainly seems to know you."

My face fell at the name, and Jamie took that as my answer. "She told me about something that happened in Georgia. Did Pitch really attack you guys?"

"Yes," I admitted slowly.

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want you to worry," I said.

"Well, you did a pretty poor job of that!" Jamie berated. "I've been worried all week! You haven't been acting like yourself, lately, and apparently, neither has Darian."

"I would be surprised if she was, considering Pitch nearly killed her," I explained, ignoring the twist in my heart at the thought of Darian feeling so low. _She brought this on herself_ , I tried to remember, but that logic seemed a bit cruel. She had almost died, for Moon's sake! It was no wonder that she was a little messed up afterward.

Jamie stared at me in shock for a moment before stammering, "What? Why?"

I looked away, muttering, "That's something that you'll have to ask Darian."

"I've tried!" Jamie nearly screamed in his frustration. "I've been calling and leaving messages for a week, but she won't answer, and Miranda says that Darian's not doing so well, that she's not eating or sleeping and won't talk to her about anything, and I'm scared, Jack!" Jamie grew quiet, and when I found the nerve to look back at him, I saw him rub his eyes to keep tears from falling. After all, he was still just a kid, and he had just heard that he had come too close to losing his beloved cousin.

I couldn't help but feel a little worried, too. Oh, who was I kidding? The news about Darian's state shook me harder than I expected, and I couldn't help but stand there, stunned, as I processed what I had just heard.

I remembered how Darian got when she was upset. She shut down. She retreated into her shell away from the world that she was worried could only hurt her more. I understood it because it was exactly how I used to deal with my problems, but at least as an Immortal, I didn't have to take into account my physical state. For Darian, this behavior was self-destructive.

I seriously considered flying back to Georgia right that second. I certainly wasn't ready to forgive her, but someone needed to snap her out of this before it got worse. Then, I looked back at Jamie moping on his bed, and I decided that he needed me more right then, so I stayed with him that night to comfort him, and I whipped up a storm outside that was so intense that he stayed out of school for the rest of the week.

Early Sunday morning, Jamie's phone started to ring. We had been hanging out all night, so he was already up and ready to answer, and I couldn't help but sigh with relief as he happily exclaimed, "Darian!" Jamie beamed at me and pointed excitedly at his phone, and I offered up a smile and wandered to a corner of the room to admire his drawings to give them some sort of privacy. Even so, I caught myself straining just to hear Darian's muffled voice at the end of the line.

The conversation seemed to be going well, at first, but then, Jamie's face became grave, and after a moment, he felt the need to take a seat at the edge of the bed. He stayed there for several minutes, and every so often, I saw him glance over in my direction, his expression unreadable. He nodded along to whatever she was saying, and at this point, I had a pretty good idea of what it was. Towards the end of the conversation, his eyes softened, and he whispered, "I understand, but I don't think I'm the person who needs to hear all of this." There was a lengthy paused as he listened again, and then he added with a faint smile, "Alright, I'll tell him. I'm really glad you called. Goodbye."

Jamie hung up and set his phone down, and he didn't say anything for quite a while. Eventually, he looked up and invited me to come back over. "That was Darian," he told me unnecessarily.

"Yeah?" I said, trying not to let on how anxious I was to know what had been said.

"It sounds like she's doing a little better now. Apparently, Miranda finally talked to her about what happened."

"Good. Good." I swallowed hard before continuing, "Did she - ?"

"Yeah. She told me," Jamie confirmed without waiting for me to finish. "The deal. The argument. Everything."

"And?" I asked, prompting him to share his opinion on the whole matter.

"I can see why you're upset. Honestly, I'm a bit disappointed in her right now, but she's also my cousin, you know? She's family. I love her no matter how stupid she gets." He shrugged. "She sounds like she's really sorry about it, though, and this whole craziness is between you two, not me. Man, you guys are complicated!" Jamie fell back on his bed, already exhausted by the day's revelation.

"No kidding," I agreed, joining him in staring up at the ceiling.

"I think you should go back and see her," he said after a moment. "She sounded like she really wanted to speak with you, but she was worried that you wouldn't want to talk to her ever again after what she did. I'm not saying you should forgive her, and I won't blame you if you don't, but maybe go and hear her out?"

I nodded and agreed to set off at that moment, though I wasn't sure what else she could say to justify her choice that she hadn't already said over and over again. I took off at a blinding speed, intending to make it there by that night. Jamie closed the window behind me, smiling hopefully.

 **Darian**

I couldn't sleep the night after I called Jamie, and for once, it wasn't because of my Nightmares. I felt antsy and anxious, and every time I attempted to lie down, I tossed and turned so much that I gave up the effort almost immediately. I tried reading or singing to distract myself, but my mind always wandered away from what I was doing, and I kept losing my place. I resigned myself to sitting by my window to watch the sky while trying to keep from fidgeting too much.

It was very late, and I started to wonder what I had been expecting. I knew that Jamie must have told Jack what I said by now, but would he really come so that I could properly apologize? Would he really fly all this way for me? I couldn't blame him if he didn't. After what I had done, I was certain that I might never see his face again.

The threat of losing Jack forever hit me hard all over again, and it was several long minutes before I could calm back down.

Watching the Dream Sand float by entertained me for a short period of time, and oddly enough, I felt a sense of relief at being able to see it. Even though Jack was gone, it made me feel like I was still connected to his world, and for once, that was a comfort to me. It made me feel as though Jack was not completely lost to me.

Too soon, the sand passed me by completely and dissipated, leaving me alone with my nervous thoughts. I watched the sky for what must have been well over an hour when I noticed something strange. At the edge of the horizon, I could have sworn that a constellation or two had vanished. I rubbed at my tired eyes to make sure that I wasn't just seeing things, and I pressed my face against the window to look again.

As it turned out, I wasn't going crazy. Stars continued to disappear all around me as dark clouds covered them up. I watched the storm move in quickly and suddenly, and then, it began to snow. Fat snowflakes rushed down and began to blanket the ground.

I scrambled to my feet and ran out to the hallway, not even bothering to keep my steps light as I tripped over to the porch and threw open the doors.

And there he was.

He was leaning against the railing with his arms folded, watching me expectantly. His eyes were like ice, and for a moment, I froze. My voice caught in my throat, and I wasn't sure what I would even say.

Then, suddenly, the words just came pouring out of my mouth, and I was helpless to hold them back. "I'm sorry! I'm so, so sorry, Jack! I was being stupid. I should never have made that deal, I should never have kept something like this a secret from you, and I should never have said all of those terrible, awful things to you. I kept trying to justify myself by saying that it was what was best for me, that I'm not perfect, but I was wrong. I should have thought about what you would feel, and even though I'm not perfect, it doesn't mean that I shouldn't try and do the right thing.

"No more excuses. This was all my fault, and I'm really, very sorry." Finally, I paused to gasp for breath. Jack remained uncharacteristically silent, and I started to lose hope. "I can't blame you if you don't forgive me, though. I mean, I wish you would, but I know I don't deserve it. I just wanted you to hear me out. You don't have to see me ever again after this if you don't want to."

I placed a hand on the door, ready to close it behind me forever if I needed to, but at last, Jack spoke, and I felt tears form in the corners of my eyes in relief. "I'm still mad," he began, "but I care about you too much to not try and make amends." At this, I had to throw up a hand to hide the fact that I was openly crying. Jack gave a small smile and lowered his arms to look more relaxed as he allowed me a moment to compose myself. I swiped at my tears and nodded gratefully.

"I know you're worried about what might happen in the future," Jack continued, "but when I'm with you, I'm so happy that I don't care about that. I really just want to be with you now, in this moment, if that's okay with you."

I nodded again, not trusting my voice not to break as tears continued to trickle down my cheeks. The next thing I knew, we were embracing, and I mumbled a few more apologies and thanks into his shoulder. We held each other for several long minutes before Jack whispered, "Our deal's off, right?"

"Of course!" I said quickly. "No more deals. Never again."

"So, if I kiss you now, I don't have to leave forever?" he asked hopefully.

I only laughed in reply and made no move to stop him as his lips met mine. And for the first time, I had nothing to be afraid of. All that mattered was that we were together at last, with no more lies, no more secrets, and no more Pitch to come between us.

 **(Sorry this month's chapter was a bit delayed. I've been having some wifi troubles lately. Admittedly, this isn't my favorite chapter. As I've probably stated before, I really don't like writing angst, but the next two chapters contain quite a bit of fluff to make up for it, so stay tuned! As always, remember to favorite, follow and review!)**


	9. Chapter 9: Strange Magic

**Darian**

The next few days that we spent together were – to use the clichéd term – pure bliss. There was nothing to stop us from being happy. We were free to feel however we wanted about each other.

Jack brought on yet another snowmageddon, so I was home from school for the entire week. We stayed up all that first night, reveling in each other's company, and early the next morning, Miranda showed up at the house. Mom had left to try and grab some groceries before the rest of the panicked town picked the store clean, and Dad was working from his computer in the study, so it was left up to me to run down the stairs and answer the door.

"I'm coming!" I shouted as she rang the doorbell over and over impatiently. As soon as I unlocked the front door, she threw it open and burst into the room, sending me stumbling backwards a few paces.

"I saw the snow, and I just thought that he might be…" She trailed off as Jack flew up next to me and offered her a small wave. "So does this mean…are you two…?" she stammered. "Is everything good?"

"Yeah," I answered softly. Jack smiled and moved to hold my hand. I stiffened at the touch, not because it was cold, but because of how new the feeling was, but in the end, I returned the small gesture. This brief interaction did not go unnoticed by Miranda, and she grinned from ear to ear.

"Finally!" she exclaimed, and she ran forward to wrap the two of us in a crushing hug.

The three of us spent the day building snowmen and having snowball fights, and even though it was usually Miranda and I against Jack (the two of us were hopelessly outmatched), I could have sworn that she tripped me more than once after I accidentally slipped on ice and Jack was kind enough to pause the fight to help me back to my feet and brush me off. After the fifth time this happened, I shot her an angry, knowing glare, but I was blushing so badly that Miranda couldn't take me seriously.

At the end of the day, after eating dinner with my family, my mom offered for Miranda to spend the night, but she refused while casting me a suggestive wink that I didn't fully understand until I walked her to the door. "I figure you and Jack will be wantin' some alone time," she explained in a hushed voice so that Jack, who was hovering nearby, wouldn't hear. "But don't think I won't be wanting all the juicy details later."

I turned a vibrant tomato red, and without another word, Miranda turned and left, laughing all the way to her car.

That night, after spending the whole day outside in the cold, Jack and I decided to stay in my room instead of going out flying. I started the next _Star Wars_ movie on my laptop for Jack to watch while I curled up next to him with the next book in my stack, and we stayed like that for several hours until he had finished the original trilogy. "Well, now what?" Jack wondered, jolting me out of my book.

I shrugged. "Pick out another movie, I guess." Jack drifted from my side to my shelf and began perusing the titles.

"Is _Harry Potter_ any good? I've seen a lot about it, but I haven't watched it."

"It's the best," I told him.

"Eight movies though? I'm not sure I want to start that tonight," he said hesitantly. "Any other ideas?"

"Read a book?" I suggested, nodding towards the stack beside my bed.

Jack cast the books a skeptical glance before floating back to his place beside me. "What are you reading now?"

" _Pride and Prejudice_ ," I replied. "I've been on a bit of a Jane Austen kick, lately."

"What's it about?"

"Oh, I'm not sure you'd really enjoy it, Jack."

"Why not?"

"Because I know you," I said. "It would bore you to sleep within the hour."

"I bet you it wouldn't. Why don't you read me some of it and find out who's right?"

"Why don't you read it yourself?" I asked.

"Eh, I prefer movies to books, to be honest. I've never really enjoyed reading. Besides, if it's you telling me the story, I'm sure to pay attention," he answered.

I hid my blush behind the book as I relented and turned back to the first page. I cleared my throat and read, "It is a truth universally acknowledged…"

In the end, I won. He fell asleep with his head on my shoulder. I closed the book, and it suddenly occurred to me how rare this must be. Jack had told me that Immortals didn't need to sleep, and the way he explained things, it sounded like he hardly ever chose to. I wondered how comfortable and relaxed he must be around me to allow himself to be so vulnerable, when for me, falling asleep around him had mostly been involuntary. I leaned my head against his and quickly followed his example.

When we woke up the next morning, Jack looked at me, slightly embarrassed and admitted, "I guess you win."

I resisted the urge to say "I told you so" and instead told him, "I bet the _Harry Potter_ books are more your speed."

"Wait, I thought those were movies."

"They are, but they were books first," I explained. "I'll tell you what. When you finish reading the books, we can spend a weekend having a _Harry Potter_ movie marathon. What do you say?"

Jack agreed to those terms, and again, instead of going out flying, we stayed inside, and I brought out my entire set of _Harry Potter_ for him to read. He picked up the well-loved, slightly battered, dog-eared first book and began reading, and I continued with more of Jane Austen's works. It was the quietest night we ever spent together, though every once in a while, Jack would gasp at something that happened in the story or turn to me to ask a question, and this went on until both of us fell asleep again, still clutching our books.

The next night, we did go out flying. This time, it was my turn to point out certain locations around town and tell animated stories about what I had done in those places, and when that was done, he dove down low over the lake again for some fun, leaving a thin trail of ice in his wake. We stayed out until I was nodding off on his shoulder, and I actually did fall asleep on the way back home, and Jack had to switch positions so that he was carrying me to make sure that I wouldn't accidentally slip off his back. When I woke up late the next morning, I found Jack still awake, finishing up the last chapter of _Sorcerer's Stone_.

I looked at him, looked at my clock, and then looked at my calendar and realized that tomorrow was Valentine's Day. I pointed this out to Jack once he had set the book down, and he suddenly smacked his forehead. "What's wrong?" I asked.

"I completely lost track of time! I'm going to have to head off tonight to help prepare for the Valentine's Day party with the Guardians," Jack explained.

"Oh," I said, a little disappointed that I wouldn't be able to spend that one day with him, though his reaction immediately made me feel guilty about it.

"Of course, there's nowhere I'd rather be than here with you!" he said quickly, noticing my sour tone.

"Don't say that, Jack. Guardian business always comes first. I know that," I assured him.

Jack smirked. "You know, you could act a little more selfishly when it comes to wanting to spend time with me. I really wouldn't mind." He gave me a quick peck on the cheek, and I blushed and looked away. "You're too good for your own good."

I wanted to protest against that, but I knew that that was not an argument I really wanted to have at that moment, so I switched to a more lighthearted topic. "Let's do something fun today," I suggested.

"Were we not having fun for the past few days?" Jack teased. I gave him a light, playful shove.

"I bought some red velvet cake mix to make cupcakes for the _Seussical_ cast for Valentine's. School and rehearsal have been cancelled, but I thought it might still be fun to bake them. We can even call Miranda! She loves doing stuff like this," I said.

"Sounds like a plan!"

I had slept in my clothes that night, so I ran to take a relaxing shower and changed into a different sweater before calling Miranda, who drove over to my house within the hour, bringing with her an extra box of cake mix, a tub of frosting purely for eating, and a large shaker of heart-shaped sprinkles.

Knowing that between Jack and Miranda things were going to get messy, I donned a large apron and rolled up my sleeves. It was almost pointless. They managed to start a miniature snowball fight indoors by hurling tiny globs of frosting at each other. I stood between them, trying to mix the batter, and I often got caught in the crossfire. I ended up with frosting clumping in sections of my hair, and I wondered why I even bothered to shower that morning.

More hijinks ensued when we tried to pour the batter. Jack kept stealing the wrappers to wear as hats just to be silly and make me laugh, and Miranda started up a new food fight by sticking her finger in the batter and flicking it at everybody. Jack joined in almost immediately, and I couldn't help but do the same after some of the batter splattered across my cheek.

Finally, we got the cupcakes in the oven and settled down a bit to scrape what was left of the batter from the bottom of the bowl, which didn't take too long, and Miranda complained about what little she got to taste.

"Well, I'm sure we could have saved more if you hadn't started throwing it around the kitchen," I told her.

"It was worth it to see the look on your face," she replied with a smile.

"Look at me! I'm a mess!" I cried, holding up a frosting covered curl.

Jack suddenly snuck up behind me then and kissed me on the cheek, right where I had been struck by batter, much to my embarrassment. "Yes," he agreed, "but a sweet one."

Whatever face I made then, it was funny enough to send Miranda rolling off the couch from laughter, and I took my spoon up like a weapon and started chasing Jack around and around the room, which only made her howl louder.

When the cupcakes were ready to be frosted, no one bothered with pranks, possibly because we were all holding knives and didn't feel like tempting the Fates, which Jack had, on one occasion, assured me were real. Between the three of us, we got the job done in under ten minutes. As a reward, we each ate a cupcake as a sort of late lunch, toasting them to our success.

We decided that we were going to spend the rest of the afternoon outside, and while Jack flew off to make sure there was enough snow in the backyard to play, Miranda and I went to pull on our coats and boots. "It looks like you two are gettin' along really well," Miranda remarked.

"Yeah, I guess so," I said, trying to sound nonchalant about it, trying to sound as if my heart didn't pound every time he looked at me, as if I never got lost in his eyes, as if it were the most normal thing in the world for me to become so close to another person.

"So, you guys are actually an item now?"

"It seems that way." Actually, I hadn't really thought about it like that. I had just been so happy to finally be together with Jack that I hadn't considered the labels. I almost laughed, wondering how Jack would react to me calling him my boyfriend. Then again, how would I react to hearing him call me his girlfriend?

"Have you kissed yet?" she asked mischievously. I must have turned an alarming shade of red because she didn't wait for me to answer. "You have!"

"You just saw…downstairs…" I stammered.

"I meant on the lips, and you know it." Miranda smirked triumphantly. "When did it happen? Did he kiss you or did you kiss him? Was it good?"

"Miranda, stop!" I hissed, as if I expected Jack to suddenly burst in on our conversation. "Yes, okay, we kissed, but for your information, it wasn't the first time."

"Details!" she squealed.

"Burgess. Christmas Eve. Mistletoe," I explained quickly, hoping that would satisfy her.

She walked over and shook me by the shoulders. "Why didn't you tell me?"

"Because I knew you would turn it into a big deal," I answered.

"Because it is a big deal! Wasn't it your first kiss?"

Thankfully, I was saved from having to answer this by Jack flying back inside to us and asking, "What's taking so long?"

"Oh, you know, girl talk," Miranda replied vaguely, and she finally let the conversation drop. Jack took one look at my burning cheeks and wisely decided not to inquire about it any further, and the three of us headed outside for some fun until the sky grew dim and Miranda had to head home.

I went back inside for dinner and afterwards packed a couple of cupcakes in a box before heading upstairs to meet Jack on the balcony, where we could talk freely without my parents suspecting anything.

"Do I really want to know what you and Miranda were talking about?" he asked.

"No."

"Okay." He paused for a beat. "Were you talking about me?"

"Jack!" I said in a warning tone, and he let the topic drop.

"I guess I should be heading off soon. We're hosting the party at the Tooth Palace. Cupid likes the scenery there the best," Jack said.

"Really? I would have thought that he would prefer the Warren from how you described it to me. I mean, a meadow in eternal Spring just seems like the type of place for a holiday celebrating new love, at least to me."

"Well, there are more hiding places at the Tooth Palace," Jack explained.

"What's that got to do with anything?"

"This is the one party out of the year where Cupid is encouraged to carry around his weapon and fire it off at whomever he sees fit, and the couples who are hit by the arrows tend to want to be alone for a while."

"Oh," I said, turning red again as I caught his meaning. "Have you ever been hit by one of his arrows?" It seemed strange to me that I was not using this sentence as a metaphor, and even stranger that I was starting to get used to stuff like this.

"No, I'm too fast for him," he replied. "Why do you ask?"

"No reason!" I insisted with a blush, and I decided to change the subject. I shoved the box of cupcakes into his hands. "Here. I thought maybe you'd want to take some back to the Guardians."

"O-oh…right…thanks," he stammered awkwardly before adding, "I should probably let you know that I actually haven't told them about you…about us. Well, except Tooth, but she just sort of figured it out on her own."

"Okay," I said with a shrug. "You don't have to tell them the cupcakes are from me if you don't want to. Just out of curiosity, though, why haven't you told them?"

"I don't know. The way Tooth acts sometimes when I bring it up makes me think that it might be better off as a secret from the other Immortals. At least, for now. You don't mind, do you?" he asked, somewhat nervously.

"Of course not," I told him. "Besides, I'm still trying to get used to the whole 'Immortals are real' thing. The last thing I need at the moment is a whole bunch of them in my face."

"That's fair," Jack agreed. "I guess you haven't really had the best experiences with us, have you?"

"Well, they haven't all been bad," I admitted with a half-smile. "You're pretty great."

"Yeah, I guess I am," he joked, and I punched him lightly on the shoulder. We laughed together for a moment before Jack began with a sly grin, "So…"

"What?"

"What _were_ you two talking about earlier?" he said.

"Nothing!" I insisted.

"It didn't look like nothing."

I hung my head, knowing that he wasn't going to let this go, and I giggled, "She was just asking if we had kissed or not!"

"Oh," Jack said simply. "Is that all?"

"Well, it's Miranda, so she was also asking for details, wanting to know who kissed who and whether or not it was good."

"And what did you tell her?" he asked, leaning forward with a playful grin.

"Actually, I never answered," I replied, matching his movement.

"What would you have said?"

"Oh, I don't know," I teased. "You were my first kiss, so it's not like I have much to compare it to, and I can't quite remember…"

Jack took the hint and cut me off by pulling me close and kissing me again, this time lacking any of the shyness and hesitance we had before. My brain completely shorted out, time seemed to slip away, and the only thing I was aware of was how warm I felt despite how cold his lips were against mine. When we parted, I was dizzy and short of breath, and for the life of me, I couldn't figure out how to wipe that stupid grin off my face.

"That was good," I breathed. "Great, actually. Definitely great."

Jack smiled and flew off, and I drifted back to my room in somewhat of a daze, hardly aware of how numb my feet were from the cold. I collapsed happily on my bed and sighed to myself, "Happy Valentine's Day."

 **Jack**

I practically threw the box of cupcakes at the Guardians when I arrived. I was a little late, so they had already started decorating the Palace without me. "Gift from Jamie," I lied as they all took a short break to dig into the cupcakes, all except Tooth, of course, who wasn't one for sweets.

"And where have you been?" Bunny inquired around a mouthful of cupcake.

"After all this time, you still haven't noticed that I never show up on time for anything? Come on, Kangaroo, I thought we were friends! It's like you don't even know me at all," I teased, hovering just out of his reach.

"I meant where have you been these past few weeks? Hardly anyone's seen you since the Christmas party!" he said. Tooth looked away nervously and busied herself with giving instructions to the smaller fairies.

"Oh, you know. I've been around bringing snow and joy to children," I replied.

"We saw," Bunny deadpanned.

"Georgia does not appear very joyful," North added

"Aw, come on! Those kids haven't had a snow day in years! How was I supposed to know that it would cause a state of emergency?"

"Just be careful," Tooth warned quietly, not eager to jump into the conversation.

I shrugged. "Whatever. Let's get decorating!"

I grabbed a chain of paper hearts and flew up high to hang them. Bunny and North covered the ground, where most of the party would be held away from the busy tooth fairies, while Tooth, Sandy, and I, the Guardians who could fly, took care of all of the hanging decorations. As we flitted about, trying to get the massive space ready in time, Tooth managed to maneuver herself so that she was hanging streamers right next to me, allowing us to speak without the others overhearing.

"You're in a good mood," she commented, taking note of how I was humming to myself. (It happened to be one of Darian's solos in _Seussical_. They had a way of getting stuck in your head.)

"Why wouldn't I be?"

"It's just that you normally hate this holiday. If I remember correctly, no less than five admirers tried to stick you with one of Cupid's arrows that he left lying around the party last year, and he did nothing to discourage them. I would expect you to be sulking in a corner by now, or perhaps trying to find a hiding place where even couples wouldn't go," Tooth explained.

"I've just had a good day, okay? And nothing – not this holiday, not this party, not even Cupid – is going to ruin it for me," I insisted. "Besides, maybe it's about time I got into the Valentine's Day spirit!"

Tooth only frowned at this. Looking both ways to make sure Sandy wasn't nearby, she asked in a low voice, "Does this have anything to do with –"

"Yes!" I interrupted. "It has everything to do with Darian!" Tooth shushed me angrily as I raised my voice.

"I'm guessing everything worked out?" Her tone did not imply that this was a good thing, but I chose to ignore that.

"Even better than you said it would!" I exclaimed in a hushed voice. "We're great! Perfect, even! There's nothing in between us now."

"What about mortality? Wasn't she worried about that?"

"Eh," I dismissed, "we'll cross that bridge when we get there, I guess."

Tooth looked at me skeptically but decided not to say anything else. She zoomed off to handle a few of her fairies, and I didn't see her for the rest of the day.

After we finished decorating, Mrs. Claus arrived with the party refreshments. She was the sole caterer to this party as well after that unfortunate first year where most of the treats were spiked with a love potion of some sort. It had been chaos. And to think if Tooth hadn't been there to knock that chocolate out of my hand…I shuddered when I considered what might have happened.

I flew down to sample one of her heart-shaped sugar cookies, but she saw me coming and was too fast for me. My hand was smacked away before I could even touch one. "Now, Jack, we must save some for when the other guests arrive," she scolded. I rolled my eyes, and she flashed me a mischievous grin. "That's why I made a few extras to tide you over until then." Mrs. Claus held a small box of cookies out to me, and I took it gratefully, spitting out my thanks as fast as I could before I flew off.

Tooth was right, though. I really should have thought more about finding a hiding place. I jumped around the Palace while munching on my cookies, searching for a spot that would least likely be invaded. I could always just hang out with the mini fairies, where their numbers would prevent couples from approaching, but it would also leave me out in plain sight, where I could easily be struck by a stray or stolen arrow. I came to the conclusion that the best option was really to run for it as soon as etiquette allowed me to and play it by ear for the rest of the party.

As the holiday came to a close and the party only just began, several Immortals started to trickle in, traveling by all sorts of methods – pegasi, portal, teleportation, and flight, to name a few. I spotted two other seasonal spirits like myself, but these two represented specific months. April, a slight girl with long silvery hair that appeared to be no older than Jamie, walked alongside July, an older girl with shimmering blonde curls and sun-kissed skin. I knew well to avoid these Immortals, especially the strong-willed July, who was usually the main conspirator with Cupid. Honestly, she kind of scared me.

Unfortunately, as one of the hosts, I had to at least be there to greet the guests as they walked in, so reluctantly, I floated down to exchange polite greetings. At least there was no real danger until Cupid arrived. July waved as soon as she saw me, dragging April along by the arm. I hardly heard anything she had to say, but I nodded and pretended to follow along, all the while wishing Darian was there to help me out of this.

Several more guests had arrived before July finished talking about…well, whatever it was she was talking about, and finally, the guest of honor: Cupid arrived to much applause after another successful holiday and toasts to what was to come in the next year. "Jack!" he called out to me, pushing July aside. He moved forward as if to embrace me, but I backed away.

"I'm sorry," I said, "but you're not coming anywhere near me with those things." Already, July was eyeing Cupid's arrows enviously.

"Fair enough," he conceded. "Although, I wouldn't worry about them much, if I were you." Before I could wonder what the heck he meant by that, he continued, "How have you been? Anything exciting happen lately?" Cupid raised an eyebrow suggestively, leaving little doubt as to what he meant by "exciting," but he couldn't know about Darian, right?

"Nope," I replied simply.

"You're holding out on me, buddy," he said. July was looking nervously between the two of us while I was wondering when I had become Cupid's "buddy." The first full conversation we'd had was at the last Christmas party, and I had done my best to avoid him, then.

"No, I don't think I am. Have a nice party!" With that, I retreated to a hidden perch, where I could still keep an eye on the party unfolding below without being noticed right away.

It went exactly as I expected it. All of the guests filled up on food and drink (I snatched a few desserts now and then), and while some chose to dance or chat with old friends, most gathered around Cupid to hear about his adventures before launching into a series of games that always resulted in someone getting an arrow through the chest.

One game involved all willing Immortals to gather in a circle around Cupid while he was blindfolded and spun around until dizzy. He fired off arrows at random in a magical version of spin the bottle, and the oddly-matched couples would wander away after being struck until there was no one left. I was told that this was all in the name of fun, but I honestly didn't understand it.

Sometimes, he would take requests if an Immortal desired a specific partner for the evening, and this event was what most often led to me being hunted throughout the Palace, but oddly enough, neither Cupid nor anyone else approached my hiding spot, and I was left in peace until the conclusion of the party.

I floated back down once everyone had finally left save for Cupid and the Guardians, who were all toasting to another fabulous year while Mrs. Claus began cleaning up. I sat down just as Cupid was finishing a tale of one of his many great feats.

"So, these two coworkers have never spoken the entire time they worked in the same building, but I've had my eye on these two for a while, you see, and I just knew they'd be perfect for each other! Just yesterday, they finally ran into each other, and I mean _ran_ into each other. I think the girl was late for a meeting or something. Anyway, papers are flying, and they both get down on the floor to pick up, but their hands meet in the middle and zing! I fired two arrows off at the same time, and now they're going out for drinks again tonight."

The Guardians awarded him with thunderous applause at the end of the story. I, for one, was just glad it was over. Cupid finally noticed me sitting there and gestured warmly towards me, as if I was a kindred spirit. "Oh, but enough about me! I'm much more interested in hearing Jack's story!" he exclaimed.

"What do you mean?" I asked warily.

"Don't be so modest, Jack! None of your adoring fans are here to be disappointed."

"Sorry, what? My what?" Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Tooth begin to fidget anxiously.

"You can't lie to me. I have a sense about these kinds of things, you know. I've been keeping an eye on you ever since the Christmas party, and I know for a fact that you were making out with a pretty little mortal girl just the other night!" Cupid announced.

Several things happened at once. Tooth gasped but threw up a hand to hide it while keeping her violet eyes fixed on me. I was pretty sure North swore in Russian, or was that just another name of a composer? I could never tell. Bunny was looking wildly between me and Cupid, as if wondering what to believe. Mrs. Claus dropped something in shock. And a large exclamation mark formed over Sandy's head.

"What the devil is he talking about?" Bunny shouted at me, and the exclamation point over Sandy's head shifted into a question mark.

"Sorry, was that supposed to be a secret?" Cupid asked innocently.

I managed to force what I hoped sounded like a lighthearted laugh. "Nothing, guys! It's nothing!" Tooth tried to laugh along with me, but it came out sounding so fake and awkward that everyone ended up staring at her, at which point she promptly shut up. "And if I did kiss a human, not that I'm saying I did, what would be the harm in it?"

North pondered this for a moment before calmly saying, "Nothing, really, if it was just a kiss."

"Nothing? Nothing! You all keep saying "nothing," but with Jack, it's always something!" Bunny yelled, leaping to his feet and pointing at me.

"Yes, Jack may be prone to making rash decisions, but he is also the Guardian of Fun. He tends to do what he believes to be fun on a whim, and most people consider kissing to be fun," North said, casting a wink over at Mrs. Claus. "As long as the kiss didn't mean something, it could be nothing."

"That's right," Tooth added unnecessarily. I shot her a glare to let her know that she was not helping, but otherwise kept up a smiling façade, pretending to all the world that my kiss with Darian wasn't everything.

Cupid still watched me suspiciously. "You know, there is a way to be sure," he told everyone, drawing an arrow from his quiver. I exchanged a horrified glance with Tooth.

"I'm not sure I like where this is going," I said, jumping to my feet and slowly backing away from Cupid as he pulled back on his bow. "Guys?" I looked over at my friends pleadingly.

"This should be good," Bunny sneered. North only nodded thoughtfully while Sandy even appeared excited. Tooth was the only one who looked as terrified as I felt.

"Don't worry, Jack. This won't hurt a bit," Cupid assured me as the arrow left the bow and rocketed towards me. I flew up and out of the way, landing in a nearby tree as the arrow sailed into the pond.

"How come I don't believe you?" I called down to him.

"This would all go over smoothly if you would just cooperate!" he shouted, sounding somewhat angry as he fired off another arrow. This one narrowly missed my ear and buried itself in a branch behind me. "Just stay still!"

"Now, why would I want to do that?" Despite my panic, I knew that I needed to keep up my banter, or the Guardians might suspect that something was wrong. It seemed to be working so far. North was laughing, at least.

I shot out of the tree, and Cupid flew along behind me, making it seem to rain arrows. I perched on a small ledge on the cliff face as he took aim again. "What are you so afraid of?" he asked. I rolled to the side as yet another arrow whizzed past and lodged in the rock beside me.

"Arrows, obviously!" I replied. "I'll see you next year!" I flew off as fast as I could, circling around the Palace a few times until I was absolutely certain that I had lost Cupid, who wasn't nearly as fast as I was. I eventually came to rest at the empty Antarctica tower, far from where I had left the Guardians, though I could still hear their laughter echoing off the cliffs. I leaned against the golden railing to catch my breath and steady myself after such a close call.

Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain in my back, followed shortly after by a pleasant warmth that spread throughout my body and seemed to muddle my thoughts. What had I just been so worried about? And why was I in the Tooth Palace? I wasn't where I needed to be. I needed to be with-

Someone forced me to turn around, and I came face-to-face with Tooth, who held one of Cupid's arrows in her hand. "Tooth!" I exclaimed in disbelief.

"Anything?" she asked desperately, searching my face and trying to make sense of my confused expression.

"Why did you stab me with that arrow, Tooth?" I wondered, not certain of what she wanted from me. I wanted to leave. I wanted to fly out of there and all the way back to Georgia. She was waiting for me there. How could I keep her waiting?

Tooth's face fell. "Then, it really is true," she sighed.

"What is?" I was getting very frustrated that no one was giving me answers. I couldn't stay here for too long, and she was holding me back!

Cupid flew in right then, only adding to my agitation. "What happened?"

"The arrow didn't work," Tooth replied, handing it back to him.

"Interesting," he murmured, turning it over in his hands. "Jack, was Tooth the first person you saw after you got hit with this arrow?"

"What does it matter? I need to go," I said impatiently, preparing to take off, but Cupid flew out in front of me.

"Jack, this is very important. Was Tooth the first person you saw?" he repeated slowly, like I was some disobedient child.

"Yes," I groaned, rolling my eyes. "There's no one else up here, is there?"

"And you don't think that maybe she looks more attractive than usual?"

I glanced over my shoulder at Tooth, who was blushing and couldn't meet my eye. I shrugged. "She looks like she always has. Can I go now? There's someone I need to see." I tried to push my way past the cherub.

"Who?" Cupid inquired.

"Darian," I answered. The name had left my lips before I was even aware of what I was doing, and it shocked me into stunned silence.

Cupid asked another question. "Who was the first person you thought about after the arrow hit you?"

"Darian," I said again in a quieter voice as I came to realize that something wasn't quite right here. I tried to fight my way through the arrow's fog, to resist that inexplicable urge to fly off right then and there. It felt as if there was some invisible force drawing me to her, and it was almost painful to resist, but I knew that I must, at least for a few moments more. "Wait, that's not…I should have fallen in love with Tooth, right?"

Cupid nodded and motioned for me to sit down. I really didn't want to, but I did anyway. Tooth joined us on my other side, but she still couldn't seem to look at me. "My arrows don't cause love," Cupid explained. "They create a brief infatuation with the first person they see after being shot; however, this doesn't always work. True love is something much stronger than infatuation, so if I shoot someone who is already in love with someone else –"

"Nothing happens," I continued.

"Not exactly. The arrow causes the person to think of whom they love. Actually, they become a little obsessive until the arrow wears off after a few hours," Cupid corrected me.

My eyes widened as I realized the implications of this. "So, when I got hit with the arrow, and I thought of Darian…that must mean - !"

"You're in love with her," Tooth finished for me.

"This…" I stood up and started pacing anxiously back and forth. "This is…this is great! I'm in love with Darian! I have to go tell her!" Again, my thoughts grew clouded by some unbeatable elation, and all I wanted to do was be at Darian's side. I started to fly off, but Tooth grabbed me by the wrist and held me back.

"No, it's not great!" she scolded. "She is a human, Jack. You are an Immortal, a Guardian!"

"I don't care!" I shouted, wrenching my hand from her grasp and shoving her back towards the ground. It registered somewhere in the back of my mind that I must have hurt her, but I didn't care about that, either. There was only one person I cared about, only one person I loved.

Darian.

 **(Hey guys! Sorry I disappeared again there. I know I do that a lot, but I promise I'm still working on this story for those of you who still put up with me and read it. I've written a few chapters ahead, and I'm really excited for where it's going, but for now, have some well-deserved fluff. Until next time, whenever that may be!)**


	10. Chapter 10: Gimme Gimme

**Darian**

I paced anxiously back and forth across my bedroom floor, not quite knowing the reason why. I was thankful that my floor was carpeted and muffled my frequent footfalls, for I was sure that my parents would have heard me by now if it wasn't. Every so often, I glanced out my window at the night sky, as if Jack would come flying in at any second.

Which was preposterous, really. It was a little past midnight, and I wasn't expecting him back until dawn, at the earliest, and I figured that he would be later than that, what with being a Guardian with probably some sort of responsibilities to take care of that I was almost certain he was neglecting in order to spend time with me.

Besides, I didn't need him. It wasn't like Pitch had shown up since he had left me alone. Well, actually…but it couldn't have been. It hadn't _really_ been a Nightmare.

It had started right after Jack had left. I had fallen asleep feeling quite happy that night, for obvious reasons, and for once, I had been blessed with some sweet and simple dreams, only for them to be interrupted rather abruptly by something strange.

I thought at first that I had just woken up. The scene had changed to what appeared to be my bedroom, if a little distorted, as though I were seeing it through a blurry, unfocused lens. I had been able to feel everything but had been unable to move or cry out, and so I had become scared. My fear had only increased when my hand seemed to move on its own, and then the dream had ended, and I had woken up for real.

The night after had been even worse. I had seen the same, twisted version of my home, and even worse, my entire body had acted of its own accord, getting up and walking unsteadily to the door before stumbling back to bed, zombie-like. Before I had made it back, however, I had caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror, and my eyes had not been _my_ eyes, though I couldn't figure out what exactly had made me think so before the shock of it all had woken me up, and I had found myself collapsed on the floor.

 _Could I be sleepwalking?_ I wondered as I continued my pacing. I wouldn't be that far-fetched of an idea, considering my history with sleep disorders, though most of those could be traced back to Pitch's influence on my sleep cycle. I couldn't see how he could possibly be connected with this, considering that it didn't really involve Nightmares, just a general feeling of fear and dread. Still, it couldn't hurt to tell Jack about this, right?

Suddenly, there was a loud, impatient knocking at my window, and I nearly jumped halfway to the ceiling in surprise. I scolded myself for being so afraid since it was probably just Jack flying back early, but this did nothing to stop my heart hammering against my ribs. I reached out to pull back the curtains, but I hesitated, my hand shaking uncontrollably, and the knocking started back up, continuing on and on like Edgar Allen Poe's raven.

The sound jolted me into action, and I threw the curtains aside to reveal Jack pressed against the glass, making a silly face. I wanted to laugh but only managed a sigh of relief. I couldn't understand why I was suddenly so paranoid, or at least, more so than usual.

I considered heading out to meet him on the front porch, but after a moment's consideration, I decided that I really didn't want to brave the cold night air for that long, so I simply unlocked and opened the window. "Jack!" I exclaimed, sticking only my head outside. "What are you doing back so-" I was cut off as Jack suddenly and without warning flew forward and kissed me, causing me to jump back in surprise, which, in turn, caused me to hit my head on the window.

I moaned in pain and ducked back inside, and Jack immediately followed. I shut the window behind him as he flew around in circles near my ceiling at a dizzying speed, and as soon as I had flipped the lock back into place, he grabbed me by the waist and spun me around, proclaiming, "I love you," before kissing me again.

Now, I was still new to the whole "kissing Jack" thing, and while I wasn't really complaining, this time felt different, more desperate, maybe, almost as if he really couldn't let me go. Dizzy and dazed and caught up in the moment, it took me a second before I thought about what had just come out of his mouth.

I broke away, asking, "What did you just say?"

"Darian, I love you!" he repeated almost before I had finished the question.

I probably should have said something to that. Heck, anything would have been better than just standing there, struck mute by the suddenness of it all, but those three words just would not compute in my brain. I froze and stared at him for what felt like eternity, and I watched helplessly as his bright expression began to fall into concern and something that strongly resembled disappointment. It was probably the most heart-wrenching thing I had ever seen, but I had yet to recover from the shock.

"Darian?" he asked softly after several moments of silence.

Finally, this shook me out of my stupor, and almost as suddenly as he did, I blurted out, "I love you, too." It was strange to me how easily those words flowed off my tongue, having never said them to anyone outside of my own family before. My voice did not waver or hesitate when I spoke, and immediately after I said those words, I found that I had no reason to regret them, for they were completely and utterly true.

"I love you," I said again, a smile creeping its way onto my lips, and I pulled Jack into another kiss.

It was quite some time before either of us spoke, and – no surprise – Jack spoke first. "We should go do something fun!" he suggested out of the blue.

"Like what?"

"I don't know!" he said a little too happily. "Anything you want!" Jack started to pull me towards the porch doors, despite the fact that I was dressed in only pajamas. "We could go flying! Maybe to the lake or the park or…or we could stay here!" He abruptly changed directions and walked back to my room, dragging me along behind him. "We could read or sing or watch movies or anything else." He stopped suddenly, causing me to crash into him, though he used it as another excuse to wrap me in another tight embrace. "What do you want to do?"

"I want you to slow down!" I told him, overwhelmed by all that had happened in only the past five minutes. Jack's smile didn't falter. He only continued gazing at me, as if in some sort of daze. It was a little unnerving, actually. "Are you feeling alright, Jack?" I reached up to touch his face to check for a temperature, but his skin was as icy as ever.

Jack leaned into the touch, continuing to grin stupidly. "I feel just fine. Perfect, even. Why do you ask?"

"You're acting weird," I replied.

"I'm always weird."

I couldn't argue with that. "Yeah, but this is weird, even by your standards. Did something happen at the party?"

Jack's eyes went wide as he seemed to recall something, and he smacked himself on the forehead. "Right! Of course! I probably should have said something about it before. I guess with everything going on, I forgot to tell you."

"Tell me what?"

Jack broke eye contact with me for what seemed like the first time that night as he turned away in embarrassment. "I may or may not have been hit by one of Cupid's arrows," he admitted sheepishly.

It took me a couple of seconds before I remembered that this wasn't a metaphor, and the realization of what had happened came crashing down on me shortly after. "Really? I thought you said that you were too fast for him!" I exclaimed in disbelief.

"I am. It was Tooth who caught me," he said.

"Tooth?" Underneath my surprise, something very much like jealousy added a bitter edge to my words as I considered the implications of what he said. "Why would she do that?"

"It's a long story," he sighed.

I sat down on my bed as I tried to process it all. "So the arrows are almost like a drug, right? You're just not thinking straight," I said, trying to sum up all that he had told me about how Cupid's arrows worked.

"Pretty much, yeah."

"Oh." I tried not to show how disappointed I felt when I figured out what this meant. I lowered my head so he couldn't see my expression, but my voice came out weak and clued him in on my feelings. I felt his cold hand on my shoulder as he knelt down to my level.

"Darian, I really do love you," he insisted, and I winced, wishing that for once, he would just shut up because that was the last thing I wanted to hear.

"You don't know what you're saying," I said, more to myself than to him. "You're just high or something, Jack."

"No, really!"

"It's fine," I continued. "It's not your fault." Even so, I couldn't help but feel incredibly stupid in all of this, like I had been the victim of the cruelest practical joke.

"Darian, please, just look at me," he begged, and Moon help me, he sounded so much like a kicked puppy that I couldn't refuse. For the first time that night, I saw that the dazed look in his eyes was gone along with that dopey grin. It was a brief moment of clarity, and I finally calmed down and listened.

"Cupid explained to me how the arrows work," he told me. "They can't create love, only infatuation with the first person you see, and trust me, I did not fly all the way back here with my eyes closed."

"Then, how…" I trailed off, trying to figure out what Jack was getting at.

"There's a catch," he explained. "If the person shot is already in love with someone else, it causes them to think about that someone. The first person I saw was Tooth, but you were the only one I could think about. So, you see? I really am in love with you!"

Jack smiled at me, and I released a breath I didn't know I had been holding. I was simultaneously elated and exhausted, and it took all of my strength not to cry from just being so tired.

"Are you okay?" he asked after a moment.

In response, I punched him on the shoulder.

Before he could even cry out, I leapt forward and hugged him. "Jackson Overland Frost, I swear to the flipping Man in the Moon that if you ever put me through an emotional roller-coaster like this again, I will kill you!"

"Fair enough," he said, embracing me back for a moment before pulling away and rubbing his shoulder. "And ow!"

"Don't lie. That hurt me more than it hurt you," I scolded playfully.

"Probably. Is your hand okay?"

I shook it out, but I had been smart enough not to really punch him this time. "I'll live."

Jack grinned at me before taking my sore hand in his cool one to sooth the last of the ache. "Still love me?" he asked, half-teasing, half-genuine.

I nodded. "I still love you," I answered, blushing.

"What do you say we get out of here and have some fun?" Jack suggested, pulling me to my feet.

"That sounds great, actually." I felt the need to get out and do something. My room had quickly become too small, too confining for all that had just happened, and I hoped that the fresh air would do me some good. He released me for a moment so that I could pull on some layers, but afterward, he was too impatient to wait for me to climb onto his back. I had hardly fastened the last button on my coat before he scooped my legs out from under me with a laugh and sped through the house and out the open door of the back porch. Normally, I would have scolded him for such a stunt, but his speed had left me dizzy and the rush of adrenaline had left me giddy, so all I could do was laugh along with him for a few moments.

Once the cool air had cleared my head, I looked back over his shoulder at my house shrinking in the distance and gave a soft, thoughtful hum. "What's wrong?" Jack wondered, having heard the sound.

"It's nothing really. I just never considered myself the type of girl to sneak out of the house with her boyfriend before, and yet, here I am," I chuckled. I looked back at Jack only to find him grinning ear to ear, just like before. I hadn't completely decided if it was cute or unsettling yet. "What?"

"You've never called me your boyfriend before," he replied.

"Oh, right." In spite of the stinging, cold wind, I felt my face grow warm. "Well, I mean, you said the "L" word first, so I guess it's really only fair that I'm the first one to start calling you my boyfriend."

"The "L" word? Seriously? That's so childish!" Jack laughed so hard that we suddenly dropped a few feet in altitude, and I threw my arms around his neck to feel more secure.

"Says the Guardian of Childhood," I snapped back.

"You know you love me."

"Do I know that?" I joked.

"Aw, come on! You said it earlier!" he whined.

"I know what I said."

"Maybe you could refresh my memory?" he said, and with his face so close to mine, I got the full effect of his clear, pleading eyes that melted my resolve into nothing.

"Fine," I relented. "I love – look out!" With his attention focused on me for so much of the flight, Jack had neglected to pay attention to where he was flying, and we were zooming straight towards a particularly tall tree. My arms still wrapped tight around him, I yanked him in another direction, narrowly missing the massive trunk. Still, we were battered by some branches before Jack could fully recover and fly back up a few feet until we were well above the tree line.

I didn't really know what to say to that while Jack, of all things, started laughing. "That was close!" he yelled over the wind.

"And what is so funny about that?" I cried. "We could have been seriously hurt! Or worse!"

Jack's laughter died almost instantly as he looked at me with horror. He slowed to a stop in mid-air to wrap me in a tight embrace without any danger. "No, _you_ would have been hurt," he corrected me. "I'm so sorry. I guess I was so caught up in everything that I forgot you can't do all the things that I can, like, for example, hitting a tree and brushing it off."

"It's okay. I'm fine," I assured him, touched by his concern. "Maybe we should just head back. You're probably not in the best headspace for flying tonight. Honestly, I'm amazed you made it all the way to my house."

"Well, I had a goal in mind, and no, I can do this. I want to do something fun with you before this craziness wears off."

"You're always crazy," I teased. "Okay, just be more careful." Jack nodded and pecked me on the cheek before we resumed flying. "It's kind of a bummer that I can't fly around like you, though. It seems like fun."

"But if you could fly, I wouldn't be able to hold you as often," he protested, squeezing me tighter for a brief moment to emphasize his point.

"Would you quit being so cute?"

"Only when you do," Jack countered.

My face flaming, I immediately sought to change the subject. "Where are we going, anyway?" I asked.

Jack glanced down briefly before answering, "About right here's good." Before I could wonder what he meant by that, he made a sharp dive that sent my heart leaping into my throat, and for a few scary seconds, I could only shut my eyes and scream. Then, just as quickly as he had begun, he leveled out and landed. "You can open your eyes now."

I did, but to my surprise, we did not appear to be anywhere near land. I could spot the silhouettes of pine trees on the banks in the distance, but the only thing in our immediate vicinity was the waters of Lake Lanier. I looked down and saw that we were standing on a patch of ice, bobbing slightly in the gentle waves. Jack set me on my feet, but due to the unsteadiness of the platform and the fact that I was still shaking from our descent, I clung to Jack as tightly as ever.

He chuckled. "I'd say you could let me go now, but I really don't mind."

"Jack, what are we doing here?"

"I thought we could go ice-skating, or rather, ice-sliding since you don't really have skates."

"You know I'm no good on ice!" I whined as I fought to keep my feet from slipping out from under me even with the support of Jack.

"Come on! It'll be fun!" he assured me, prying my arms from around his neck. He took one of my hands in his while the other held his staff and began leading me around the steadily growing circle of ice, our little makeshift skating rink.

In the beginning, I kept trying to run on the ice instead of sliding, which often led to me slipping and falling to my knees, but I never hit the ice hard, thanks to Jack, and he was always there to pick me back up. Despite my initial hesitation, I ended up having fun with our silly activity, and I couldn't help but marvel at how good Jack was at this – not only at ice-skating, but at getting people to have fun and adjusting to their comfort level. Sure, he could be frustrating at times, but when it really came down to it, he could be very thoughtful.

Eventually, Jack let me go and had me try sliding around by myself for a bit, but I was still awkward and clumsy trying to slide around on the ice, and from how hard Jack was laughing, I could tell I looked ridiculous. After a while he took pity on me and let me sit down, but as full of boundless energy as he was, he continued to glide around effortlessly on the ice with the grace of a practiced figure skater, accomplishing leaps and turns with ease, though I had no doubt that his power of flight was assisting him quite a bit. It was honestly breathtaking to watch what over 300 years of practice had produced.

And then I grew sad, realizing how much of that time he must have spent alone to acquire this skill, and how great it must be to finally share it with someone.

Well, I was glad that someone was me.

"Show-off!" I called after watching him for quite a while, bringing his attention back to me. Although, I doubted it had ever fully left me due to the effects of Cupid's arrow. He changed course on the ice and skated straight towards me. He lifted me up and placed me back on my feet and began to drag me along beside him as he skated around, keeping one arm around my waist to steady me.

Before too long, the dragging turned into a sort of dancing. To make me laugh, he would occasionally spin me around or lift me in the air, and whenever I least expected it, he would try and steal a kiss on the cheek. I wasn't sure how long this went on, but it ended when we spun around too quickly, and dizzy and out of breath, I slipped and crashed to the ice, bringing a disoriented Jack down with me.

Bruised and battered and laughing too hard to attempt to stand, we stayed where we were for several minutes, sprawled out on the ice, but of course, before too long, I realized that we had fallen into a somewhat compromising position, not that Jack minded, of course. Embarrassed, I shifted so that I was lying beside him instead, and we spent the rest of the night watching the stars, hand in hand. When I could see the sky grow lighter with the approaching dawn, I decided that it was best that we hurry back to my house.

"Aw! Can't we stay just a little bit longer? I don't want this to end," he whined, wrapping his arms around my waist and pulling me back down beside him when I tried to stand. His grip wasn't firm, though – lazy, even – and I was able to pry him off of me with ease.

"My parents will be up soon," I warned. "Come on!" I shakily stood up, and he followed, but oddly enough, he started swaying as soon as he got to his feet. I shifted closer in case I needed to catch him. "Are you alright?"

"Never better!" he replied with a dazed smile. Although I was skeptical, I didn't have time to argue before he scooped me up and took off into the air again.

This time, the flight was slow and unsteady. Jack swerved left and right, and when I looked up at him, I saw that his eyes were half-closed. "Jack!" I shouted. No response. "Jack, what's wrong?" I felt his grip on me slacken. "No! Jack, wake up!" It was no use. Before I knew it, I was free-falling, screaming at the top of my lungs.

And then, just as suddenly as I had started, I stopped. Someone had caught me, holding me just like Jack had, at first, but before I could register what was going on, one arm slipped out from underneath my legs, keeping the other wrapped around my torso while I clung to their neck for dear life. My savior then flew up and used their free arm to support a steadily descending Jack Frost. "Oh, Tooth," he mumbled, hardly seeming able to register anything beyond his rescuer, and finally, I became aware of the whir of the quickly beating wings and of the iridescent feathers covering the skin of the one who had saved us.

I had just been saved by the Tooth Fairy.

If I wasn't so frightened, it probably would have been one of the coolest things to ever happen to me.

We made our way back to my house at a painfully slow pace. It seemed that while the weight of one of us wasn't a problem for her to carry, both of us was a bit of a stretch. Tooth said nothing the entire way under the strain of it all.

She roughly dropped me on my feet on the front porch before landing herself with a heavy sigh, continuing to support Jack, who hung limply off of her like a rag doll. "He's going to need to rest here for a while," she said finally as I led her inside to my room, where she laid Jack on my bed.

"What's wrong with him?" I asked, only able to stand by helplessly.

"Nothing," she assured me. "He's perfectly fine. Just exhausted."

"I thought Immortals didn't need sleep."

"No, not usually, but even we have our limits. When we overuse our powers, for example, or in this case, when we've been attacked by or exposed to other Immortals' magic, such as Cupid's arrow. His body just overworked itself in trying to process and expel the magic. He'll be back to his old self after a couple of hours," she explained.

"That's a relief," I sighed, sitting down on the bed beside him. Having calmed down, I was finally able to soak in the appearance of the Tooth Fairy, hovering there in all her majesty. Jack hadn't been exaggerating when he had described her beauty to me before. In fact, nothing he told me really seemed to do her justice.

After a few moments of silence, I came to the realization that Tooth hadn't looked at me once the entire time. She stubbornly kept her violet eyes trained on Jack's sleeping form.

"Tooth?" I began. She hummed to show that she heard me but still refused to look up. "Just out of curiosity, why are you here?"

She cracked a small, fond smile. "I followed Jack here to make sure he didn't do anything stupid because well, you know, it's Jack."

"Yeah." I chuckled with her before embarrassment suddenly washed over me. "Wait, you were watching this whole time?" Tooth only nodded in response, and I felt my face burn crimson. "Sorry," I said instinctively.

"For what?" she asked, and suddenly, her piercing eyes darted up and focused on me, almost accusingly.

"I – I don't know, exactly," I stammered. "I guess I'm sorry that we had to meet like this. Jack talks about you a lot."

"He does?" she said, softening slightly.

"Yeah. You and the rest of the Guardians. He said that you were the only one who knew about us, though. Is that true?"

She nodded. "But not for long. Cupid happened to blurt it out after the party. There's just no keeping things like this a secret from him."

"Jack failed to mention that." I cast an annoyed glance over at him, not that he could see.

"Yes, I'm sure he did. He was…quite distracted." Her gaze flitted between the two of us.

"He also said…" I paused, a little scared to continue. "He said that you were the one to hit him with the arrow. If you don't mind, may I ask why?"

"I only wanted to see for myself how serious this was, and make no mistake, Darian, I am a very busy person. I would not have taken this time away from my duties if I didn't believe it to be of the utmost importance," she explained. Her attitude was very formal, her words slow and chosen carefully, not at all how Jack had described her to me: always warm and excitable, flitting about this way and that. I got the feeling that she didn't like me very much.

"Are you saying that what we're doing is wrong, that I should stop seeing Jack?" I asked straight out, not sure if I really wanted to hear her answer.

"Not exactly, no. What gave you that idea?"

"It's just that Jack said he was worried about telling the other Guardians about us because you never seemed to think it was a good idea," I told her.

"No, being with you is probably not a good idea," she replied. "It's certainly not a rational one, but Jack has never really been good at that, and well…" She paused, a slight blush coloring her cheeks, the first sign of warmth I had seen from her. "He wouldn't be the first Immortal to fall in love with a human."

Tooth gave a heavy sigh, seeming to release all of her tension and let her guard down around me for the first time. She fluttered over and sat down next to me on the bed, and when she spoke again, her voice was softer and kinder than it was before. "I'm just concerned about him. He's so young, and he often doesn't know what he's getting himself into. Falling in love with a mortal is just so risky, and I'm worried that he won't be ready if this doesn't last."

"I know," I admitted softly. "I used to think that I couldn't handle it either, and honestly, I'm still not sure, but what I do know is that right now, I'm miserable without him and happier than I ever thought I could be when he's by my side. I love him, I really do, and even if it's only for a short while, I want to be with him."

"Don't you care about the danger this puts you in, about Pitch?" she inquired.

"Of course I care. It scares me to death, actually. I'm not a brave person and never have been, but at least in this one thing, I won't let fear make my decision for me."

Tooth finally smiled at me. "That's exactly what I wanted to hear."

I gave a nervous chuckle. "Was this all a secret test or something?" I wondered.

"In a way," she answered with a shrug. "After all that Jack has told me about you, I wasn't sure if you were able to handle all this, if you were worth his time. Can you really blame me, though, especially after I heard that you made a deal with Pitch?"

"It's certainly not my proudest moment, but I see your point," I said.

"Still, you've come a long way, the both of you have, since you first met in Burgess, and I think now you might have a fighting chance."

"A chance of what?"

Tooth only shook her head. "Too soon to tell, but I think we'll find out before too long." With that, she took off and started flying out the door. "I'm sure we'll see each other again, Darian."

By the time the sun was peeking over the horizon, Tooth had flown off, leaving me tired and confused as I tried to figure out what her last words had meant. What was this "chance" she spoke of, and why was it too soon? I laid back on my bed, but after the long night I'd had, I was asleep as soon as my head hit the mattress.

My dream was unusual, even by my standards. It seemed that I was shrinking smaller and smaller into an unending darkness. I heard my own words echoing around me. "I won't let fear make my decision for me." This was followed by a laugh I knew all too well.

Then, I woke up, or at least, I thought I did, but everything around me seemed twisted and wrong, like both times before this. I sat up, but again, it was my body acting of its own accord. I was merely a passenger on this ride, and I was utterly terrified. My head turned, and I looked down at Jack, who continued to sleep peacefully with a smile across his face.

 _He's right there_ , came a thought that I didn't think was my own. _It's so easy._

My hand reached towards him, seemingly with ill intent, and internally, I screamed. No! This was all wrong! I would never want to hurt him!

My hand faltered as I regained a small measure of control over it, but I had to fight for it with all that I had. It felt like I was kicking and screaming and still accomplishing nothing. My fingers only grazed his cheek before my body finally quit fighting me, and I collapsed on the bed again, descending once more into darkness.

 _Too soon_ , said a thought, fuzzy and fading fast. _Too soon._

 **(Woot! We're halfway through the story, and I am determined to finish this. Stay tuned!)**


	11. Chapter 11: Stranger Than You Dreamt It

**Darian**

I didn't really sleep much after that weird dream, so I busied myself with my homework for the rest of the day, trying very hard not to think about it. My efforts were in vain, though. My thoughts would always return to how strange the Nightmare was and to what I had attempted to do, and it sent shivers down my spine every single time.

I had finished my homework and was already packing up by the time Jack stirred. "Good morning, Beautiful," he mumbled, not quite awake. I jumped at the sound. When had I become so skittish?

I recovered quickly and told him, "Actually, it's four in the afternoon." Jack only groaned in response and dragged the covers up over his head to shield his face from the sunlight streaming through the windows. "How are you feeling?"

"I've had worse," he claimed, his voice muffled by the sheets. I scooted closer and after some resistance, managed to peel the covers away from him. He moaned and rubbed at his eyes, but he finally gained enough strength to sit up. "What happened?"

"You got shot by one of Cupid's arrows," I replied.

"I meant after that."

"Do you really not remember?" I asked, somewhat disappointed.

"I do, but my brain feels so fuzzy right now that I'm not sure I can figure out which things really happened and which things I only just dreamt of. Please, tell me I didn't do anything too embarrassing!"

"You mean besides flying halfway across the world just to tell me that you loved me, only to pass out mid-flight and drop me, leaving it up to Tooth to rescue us both and fly us all the way back to my house?"

"Crap, I was hoping that last part wasn't real. I'm so sorry about that, by the way."

I shrugged. "It was poor judgement on both our parts. I probably should have insisted on staying in with how unpredictable you were acting. Besides, I'm fine now, so that's all that matters."

"Alright, let me just get my thoughts straight. So, that happened. What about the ice skating?" he asked. I nodded. "Got it. And…" Jack trailed off, uncertain of whether or not he wanted to ask his next question. "Did you really say you loved me back?"

He looked so pitiful right then, exhausted and almost a little afraid, that I felt the need to lean forward and press a quick kiss to his lips to reassure him. "Yes, I did. I love you, Jack," I stated with the utmost certainty.

"I love you, too," he returned, finally relaxing. "I'm glad I got that straightened out. I figured those things had to have really happened. Everything else just seemed too weird."

"What was so improbable that a Guardian of Childhood with ice powers who frequently interacts with fairies, elves, and talking animals believed that it couldn't possibly have happened?" I asked.

Jack suddenly felt the need to look anywhere but at my face, and I imagined that he would be blushing if he were any normal human being. "Trust me, you don't want to know. That love arrow's got some powerful magic, with a side effect of some…interesting dreams."

I decided that it would probably be best for both of us if I didn't press the question any further. After a minute or two, Jack stood and stretched. "Where are you going?" I wondered as he reached for his staff.

"I think I might have a bit of explaining to do to the other Guardians, and I definitely owe Tooth a huge thank you-slash-apology. Also, I kind of feel like punching Cupid in the face, so I'll let you know how that goes," Jack said.

"Jack, you really shouldn't," I scolded.

"You're one to talk," he teased.

I blushed and flexed the fingers of my right hand in remembrance. "Shut up. It's not the same. You snuck up on me. It was a reaction."

"It's totally the same! He snuck up on me. This is my reaction."

I rolled my eyes. "Technically, it was Tooth who –"

"Alright!" he relented. He leaned forward to give me a quick peck on the cheek. "I won't punch Cupid in the face, but I do need to have a talk with him."

"By all means," I said, getting up to open a window for his escape. "Tell Tooth I said hello."

"Will do!" he said, launching himself out the window. After a few seconds, he had flown completely out of sight. It took a minute to dawn on me that I was once again completely alone and unprotected, and I felt the fear creeping over me until I was visibly trembling. I forced myself to sit down and take several deep, calming breaths, reminding myself that this was what I had signed up for. I'd known from the beginning that he couldn't always be around.

Besides, being alone wasn't all bad. It gave me time to sort through all that had happened. After an early dinner, I treated myself to a long, hot shower to think things through.

To start: I was in love with Jack Frost.

And any semblance of a normal life went out the window as soon as I had admitted it, but for once, I didn't really mind.

Next, the Tooth Fairy seemed to warm up to me, which was a great deal of weight off my shoulders. With how Jack looked up to her, I would have felt like I had failed him if she didn't approve of me. But what "chance" was she talking about last night?

Then there were those dreams. In every single one, I had almost no control over my actions. I thought about what I had tried to do to Jack in the last one, and I began shaking again, forcing me to lean against the shower wall to keep from falling. What was happening to me?

 _Nothing_ , I tried to convince myself. They were just dreams, not even bad ones, just weird. Nothing had happened so far, and there was no reason to think that anything would.

 **Jack**

The Tooth Palace was my first stop of the day. I figured that before trying to explain myself to the other Guardians, I needed to know exactly what they were thinking after I ditched them, and only Tooth could give me that. Also, she had saved Darian even when I couldn't, and I was very eager to thank her for that and very eager to hear more about their first meeting. It was a shame that I had been unconscious when it had happened.

As always, she was darting back and forth in the center of her palace. She really did try to get out more to find teeth personally, but more often than not, she found it more efficient to continue doing what she had been doing for the past four hundred or so years. She had known I was there before I approached her, of course. The little fairies were never quiet about my visits, and she was always notified of my presence almost as soon as I arrived. Before I could land anywhere near her, she shooed off the closest cluster of fairies and motioned for me to follow her down below.

I flew down and took a seat on a large rock by the pond, and she hovered in front of me, arms folded expectantly. "So, um, Darian says hi," I began awkwardly. "I'm sorry about last night. I really should have listened to you and stayed put, and I know I wasn't very nice to you when I left."

As I waited for her response, she did the last thing I expected her to do by saying, "I'm sorry, too." I stared at her, bewildered. "Hitting you with the arrow was, admittedly, not one of my brightest ideas, but I just had to know."

I shrugged. "It wasn't all bad. Darian and I said we loved each other, so I'd say the night went pretty well, despite the whole 'passing out mid-flight' thing. Thanks for your help, by the way. If you hadn't been there…" I trailed off, not wanting to finish that particularly dark train of thought.

Tooth lightened the tone by teasing, "Well, I had to make sure you wouldn't do anything stupid, but thankfully, it seems like Darian's got that covered. She was able to quickly recognize that you weren't yourself and talk you down a little. I mean, the night still ended up with you dropping her out of the sky, but in her defense, she had no way of knowing any other side effects of the arrow."

"Does this mean you like her?" I asked hopefully.

"Why does it matter? You're going to do what you want whether or not I give my approval," she pointed out.

"It's still important to me!" I insisted. "You and the other Guardians are such a big part of my life, and Darian has become such a big part as well that it would just feel wrong if you all didn't get along."

Tooth placed a reassuring hand on my shoulder. "Don't worry. I really think Darian's a nice girl. She has plenty of flaws, of course, but she's got a good head on her shoulders, and she truly loves you. Even so, I would be wary of bringing it up to the other Guardians just yet. It's not necessarily because they won't like her. The idea of dating a mortal is usually just considered to be a bad one."

I nodded at the last part before I remembered what Cupid had said to them at the party, and I groaned and rested my head in my hands. "How much do they already know?" I wondered aloud.

"Nothing more than the fact that you kissed a mortal. Cupid didn't really tell them anything else afterwards, and no one has officially brought it up since. North seems to find the whole thing amusing, but Bunny was still very suspicious before I left. Honestly, they probably all suspect that there's a little bit more to the story than what they were told, and while I can't say they'll be happy to hear the truth, it's probably for the best if we don't keep it from them for too long."

"I agree. Besides, I want to show Darian around eventually. Jamie and I have told her about everything, and it just wouldn't be fair if she didn't get to see it all, too."

"Well, no matter when that day comes, you two are welcome here at any time." She paused to think this over before adding, "As long as you don't make a mess while wandering around. No frozen fairies and no canisters out of order."

I nodded. "Understood. I am a little upset about one thing, though."

"Oh? And what might that be?"

"I was kind of looking forward to getting revenge on Cupid, but I guess since he really didn't spill all that much, I have no real reason to. Not without making the others suspicious, that is."

"Jack! You really shouldn't do that!" she snapped.

"You know, Darian said the same thing earlier. It's no wonder you two get along," I chuckled. "Don't worry about it. I already promised that I wouldn't."

Tooth nodded, looking almost impressed. "Well, we should probably both get back to work. I'm glad you came to see me, but maybe next time we can try and avoid drama of any kind, okay?"

"That sounds like a good plan to me." I flew forward and wrapped Tooth in a tight embrace before she could fly off. "Thanks again."

"For what?"

"Everything." She blushed, mumbled something else about getting back to work, and disappeared. I followed suit, making a couple of rounds through some countries before I felt I had done enough work to justify spending more time with Darian. By the time I had made it back to Georgia, it was Monday night.

I saw light spilling out of Darian's window when I got to her house, and I knew that she must have left the curtains pulled back to see me coming. Even so, she was too caught up in a book to notice when I landed on her balcony, and when I knocked, she nearly jumped out of bed in shock, and I could hear her squeak of surprise even through the glass. I laughed at her reaction but quieted as soon as I saw her clearly when she opened the door for me. Her face was pale, and she was trembling slightly.

"Is something wrong?" I asked.

"No," she mumbled too quickly. "No, you just surprised me. That's all. I'm glad you're back." She took my hand and led me back to her room, and I felt that she was still shaking. It occurred to me that this was only the second time I had left her alone since we had become an official couple, since she had become a willing target of Pitch Black, and I wondered if she was ever scared of what might happen during the time that I was gone. I certainly was.

"How was school today?" I said, trying to change the subject.

"Horrible! I answered a math problem wrong in class, and I missed a couple of steps in _Amayzing Gertrude_ during rehearsal," she complained.

"I'm sure it wasn't that bad," I tried to reassure her.

"It was, and both only happened because I kept overthinking things. I couldn't stop thinking about what if I messed up, and then I did. It's been so long since I've freaked out like this, and I don't really know what to do about it."

I pulled her closer to me to comfort her. "Don't worry," I told her. "Your show's coming up in less than two weeks. You're probably just stressed." Darian stared at me, bewildered. "Now what?"

"Since when did you become the rational one? Jeezum Crow, you're probably right." Darian laughed. "The jumpiness and the weird dreams all make sense now! I've just been stressing out about my first show since elementary school!"

"Yeah! Wait, weird dreams?" I wondered, starting to become concerned about Pitch again.

Darian, now feeling far more relaxed, only shrugged. "They're not Nightmares, per say," she explained, seeming to guess what I was thinking. "They're just weird in that they're always the same. It's like I'm awake, but I have no control over my body, but that could easily just be the stress, right?"

I shrugged, as well. "I guess so. I mean, I don't really sleep and dream like a normal person, so in this case, you probably know better than I would."

"Well, I'm glad that's cleared up," Darian sighed. "I feel much better now." She yawned and leaned against me contentedly, humming a few notes from _Solla Sollew_.

"Maybe you ought to get to sleep," I suggested. "Rehearsals are only going to get more intense from here on out, right? You're going to need your rest now."

"Right again," she said with another yawn. "Next week is tech week. What's with you and having all the right ideas tonight while I'm the one freaking out?"

"Like I said, I can have those occasionally, and again, it's probably just all the stress. Once this show is over, you'll probably be back to your usual stick-in-the-mud self, bashing me with pillows for saying something stupid," I teased. Of course, this earned me a pillow to the face before Darian stretched and laid back on her bed. "Would you like me to leave?"

And there it was. That look on her face that I had seen too many times. That look that suggested there might be a bit more than what she was telling me. That look that told me that I certainly wasn't going anywhere that night if I could help it. That look of barely contained terror, flashing across her face in merely a fraction of a second.

She recovered quickly and muttered a noncommittal, "You do whatever you want."

I did exactly that. I leaned my staff against the wall and laid down next to her. While normally it might take her a while to get comfortable next to me and fall asleep, she almost immediately curled up next to me and passed out, probably again due to all of the stress she was under at that time, what with her show, the looming threat of Pitch, and the fact that she might still be a little freaked out over what I had done the other night. I knew I was.

Of course, even though I never truly needed rest, spending the night in Darian's room nearly always lulled me to sleep. The bed was always so soft underneath me, despite the lack of pillows, and Darian was always so warm next to me that the pull of dreams was almost irresistible, and paired with the repetitive motion of running my fingers through her hair and watching frost patterns form at the tips (the furthest part from her scalp and therefore the coolest), I was drifting off within minutes.

I woke up feeling cold, which was not unusual for me, as it was more or less a constant state of being, but I knew that this meant Darian was no longer right beside me. Normally, that wouldn't alarm me. My very presence in her room caused the temperature to drop dramatically, and even underneath all of her blankets, it was inevitable that she would eventually become too cold to remain by my side. Too lazy to open my eyes, I instinctively reached out for her, only to find that she was not in bed at all. Immediately, I sat up, suddenly very awake, calling, "Darian?"

I didn't have to look very far. She was standing nearby, her back to me, but I could see that she was holding tight to my staff, of all things. I repeated her name, but she did not respond, continuing to stare down at the object in her hands as if in a sort of trance. It was unnerving, to say the least. Slowly, trying not to alarm her, I slid out of bed and approached her. "Is something wrong?" I asked, reaching out for her, but as soon as my fingers brushed her shoulder, she collapsed, and I had to act fast to catch her before she hit the ground.

Only moments after I had safely lowered her to the floor, her eyes flew open again, and she began looking around wildly before her eyes came to rest first on my staff, still clutched in her hands, and then on my face. "Oh, good. I'm awake this time," she sighed, removing one hand from the staff to flex her fingers experimentally.

"What the heck just happened? Were you having one of those weird dreams again?"

"Yeah." After taking another look back down at the staff, she added, "Although, I'm starting to get the feeling that they're not just dreams."

"Could it be that you've been sleepwalking this entire time?" I wondered, hoping that there might be some sort of logical explanation to what I had just witnessed. "Can stress cause that?"

"I think so," Darian replied. "Why not? I've already experienced just about every other sleep disorder. What's one more to the pile?"

"Yes, but pretty much all of them could be attributed to-"

"Don't say it!" Darian snapped.

"Believe me, I don't want to."

"Do we even know if Pitch," she shuddered at the name, "could cause something like this?"

"I'd have to ask the Guardians, though that might just complicate things. I still haven't really told anyone besides Tooth that we're dating, but they are suspicious. If this ends up being nothing other than stress, we will have gotten them involved for nothing," I said.

Darian pressed her lips into a thin line as she thought this over. "Maybe we should wait to talk to them then, at least until after the show," she suggested after a few minutes. "That way, if the sleepwalking continues, we'll know that it wasn't the cause."

I nodded in agreement. "That sounds like a solid plan. See? You're still the rational one," I teased, trying to lighten the tension. Darian smiled, but I sensed that it was more out of courtesy than actual amusement.

"For the time being, though, we should probably play it safe as far as sleeping goes."

"But you were doing so well!" I whined, still half-joking. "You were almost sleeping like a normal person!"

"Who's got time for normal these days?" Darian joked back, rolling her eyes at me. She thrust the staff into my hands. "I believe this is yours, by the way."

"Thanks," I said, taking it. "I gotta ask, though, why did you go after it in the first place?"  
Darian suddenly dropped her eyes from my face, and I knew her body language well enough now to understand that this meant that she was either ashamed or keeping something from me, but when she answered, "I don't know," she sounded completely genuine.

 **Darian**

I tried to tell myself that I wasn't lying to him, not really. I had been telling the truth when I told him that I didn't know why I went after his staff, but at the time, it had _felt_ like I had known. It was the same as before: My body had acted on its own, and I only caught brief glimpses of intent from fuzzy, fleeting thoughts that were not my own. I remembered trying to fight back again, but it was harder this time, and I hadn't really won in the end. I had only managed to last long enough for Jack to wake me up.

Of course, I didn't want to admit any of this to him in case he panicked, and if he panicked, I was going to panic, and the two of us would just be one big mess together.

I spent the rest of that week trying to sleep as little as possible, and while Jack didn't necessarily approve, he at least aided me in my activities to distract myself to stay awake and didn't try to drown me in dream sand. For a while, we entertained ourselves by having me read some more of the Harry Potter series to him, which accomplished two things: keeping me awake through talking and helping him progress through the books. Unfortunately, this tired out my voice very quickly, which wasn't acceptable this close to opening night. Thankfully, Jack himself was an endless fountain of distractions and I had more than enough movies to show him, so there was no shortage of ways to entertain ourselves through the long nights, and on the off-chance I did fall asleep, Jack kept a careful watch over me.

My attempts to stay awake did nothing to ease my ever-growing anxiety, however, and I found myself growing more and more skittish as the week went on. I nearly had panic attacks when called upon in class, and I no longer volunteered to demonstrate solos in chorus. My teacher excused me for this, saying that I needed to rest my voice before the big show, but Miranda knew something was up, especially after noticing how more often than not, Jack would stick closely to my side instead of wandering off like he usually did when I was busy in class. When asked about the strange behavior we were both exhibiting, I told her that I had simply been stressing about the show and that Jack just wanted to make sure I was alright, omitting the part where we suspected that something more might be wrong with me. It was yet another half-truth, and as always, Miranda seemed skeptical of it, but as far as she could tell, nothing was seriously wrong with me, so she accepted the answer and didn't ask again.

Real trouble struck on Thursday night when Jack said that he was long overdue to check in with the Guardians but promised he would be back the very next day. I assured him it was alright with me. After all, we had agreed that he couldn't ignore his duties to be with me every second of every day, but I found myself unable to sleep at all that night out of sheer, unexplainable terror. My mom found me curled up on my bed the next morning, trembling and nervously watching every shadowy corner, and I lied and told her that I'd just had a terrible Nightmare and hadn't been able to rest since.

Because of this, I was a complete wreck on Friday. I was both exhausted and completely on edge, conflicted between wanting nothing more than to sleep and the need to constantly be wary of my surroundings. Despite the fact that I knew caffeine and sugar weren't the best things to have before a performance, I finally gave in and bought a soda from the vending machine, but it ended up doing nothing but make me jittery. In chorus, Miranda saw me empty the bottle and remarked, only half-joking, "You know, they say sugar gives you Nightmares." I only glared at her, fairly certain she was quoting from _Sharkboy and Lavagirl_ , which, incidentally, Jack and I had watched just earlier that week. (Fun fact: The dream song was now his new favorite thing to sing whenever he got really frustrated about my insistence on staying awake, and I was seriously regretting letting him talk me into that movie, no matter how bored we were.)

Then came theatre class, where again, we were running "Biggest Blame Fool." It seemed that the more bodies dancing around on the stage, the harder it was to get the number right, which was unacceptable this close to opening night. I watched from the wings as Miranda sprung onto the stage with her fellow Wickershams, laughing and poking at our Horton, and it suddenly dawned on me that it was almost time for my cue, and I became inexplicably, unbearably nervous. My heart pounded louder and louder with each passing beat in the song until it was all I could feel and hear, causing my head to spin and making it hard to catch my breath. In this state, I didn't realize that the music had stopped until my teacher shouted my name from the house, snapping me out of my haze momentarily. Still, I remained hidden in the wings, ashamed of having missed my cue.

Even so, I could feel everyone's eyes boring into me, including Miranda's, who was looking back from her place onstage. June, whose solo was almost immediately after mine, shook my shoulder gently from behind. "Hey, is everything okay?" she whispered.

I nodded my head, in part to answer her question but also in an attempt to clear up whatever had come over me. "Yeah," I replied. "I didn't really sleep last night. I guess I just zoned out there."

June smiled sympathetically before calling out to the teacher, who was still calling my name, "Sorry! She was helping me with something. It won't happen again." I gaped at her for taking the blame for me, but she only gave my shoulder one last comforting squeeze before backing away again.

"Take it from the top!" our teacher instructed, earning a collective groan from the sore and tired dancers.

I took a deep breath to steady myself, but as soon as the music started up again, my anxiety came back worse than before, and I found myself rooted to the spot once again. This time, Jared, who was also backstage at the time, took action when he saw how I hesitated, pushing me out onto the stage when it was my time to go on. I tripped up onto the platform, briefly stumbling into the cat and throwing the both of us slightly off balance. He recovered, but I struggled to pull myself up to my full height on shaking legs. I looked out into the audience with wide, terrified eyes and opened my mouth to say my lines, but no sound came out.

 _Not again._

Time stopped. The music stopped. Even my heart and breathing seemed to stop.

If I looked out into the audience, all I could see was the spotlight, and if I looked around the stage, all I could see were the countless eyes staring at me, and both were waiting for me, judging me, burning me. I felt like I was on fire. I looked around wildly, searching for Miranda and Jack and June and Jared, but the faces all spun around me and blurred together into nothingness, and I could have sworn that I heard someone laughing. I wanted to scream, but I had no control of my voice, of my entire body, in fact.

That's when everything went black.

The darkness couldn't have lasted more than a minute or two, but it felt like I had been falling into it for eternity. Eventually, voices broke through, all of them calling my name, and I could see the sun breaking through the night. I opened my eyes but instantly regretted it, as the spotlights were just too bright and hurt my head, but I quickly became aware that it wasn't just my head that was sore but my entire body, and I was shaking and sweating all over. "What happened?" I groaned, my words slurring together.

I heard Miranda answer, "You passed out and fell off the platform. The teacher called the nurse, and she'll be here any minute now." Her voice trembled a little. She sounded quite unsettled by what had just happened. I was, too, but I was still too out of it to show it.

Suddenly, I felt a familiar pair of cool hands on my face, and I peeked up at Jack through squinted eyelids. He appeared rather uncomfortable, wedged into the crowd of people around me with at least two Jungle Citizens phasing through him, but he didn't seem to care. He said nothing, knowing that I couldn't answer back in this situation, but his presence was comforting enough. The nurse arrived just a few moments later, and after checking to make sure that I didn't have a concussion or any other major injuries, she helped me into a wheelchair and pushed me away to her office, where I was to spend the rest of my day.

 **Jack**

I didn't leave Darian's side even once through the whole ordeal, not caring how many other stupid teenagers I had to fly through to do so. The ride to the nurse's office was thankfully uneventful, since the incident had occurred well before a class change, leaving the hallways open and clear. I still couldn't very well talk to Darian with the nurse around, but in her state and after all she'd been through that day, I figured that she wasn't in much of a mood for talking, anyway.

Darian spent the rest of the school day with the nurse, lying back in a cot and snacking on fruit juice and crackers. Whenever she wasn't treating other students, the nurse would ask Darian questions and type up the answers in a report on the computer.

"Have you ever passed out before?"

"Not that I can remember."

Typing.

"Can you think of why you may have fainted? Are you getting enough food and rest?"

"I haven't been sleeping well lately, and I didn't get any sleep at all last night."

More typing.

This was how the last tedious hour of the school day passed, with the most exciting thing that happened being the nurse calling Darian's parents to notify them of what had happened. When asked if she wanted to go home, Darian insisted that she needed to go to rehearsal with opening night so close, and the nurse only agreed to it after Darian promised to remain in the audience to watch. As that last hour ticked by ever so slowly until afterschool rehearsal, I spent my time running my fingers through her hair or resting a cool hand on her forehead. Either elicited a small, weak grin from her each time.

Finally, the last bell rang, and the nurse released Darian once the final bus load had been called and the hallways were empty. She slowly rose to her feet and found that while she was exhausted, her legs had at least stopped their shaking and would hold her weight. She took the first few steps out of the office on her own, but once we were well out of the nurse's sight, she leaned against me for support with a heavy sigh, and I matched her step for dragging step as we walked back to the theater.

"Are you alright?" I asked once I was sure that we were all alone.

"I'm not sure," she admitted. "My brain still feels all fuzzy. I couldn't rest well in there. When I passed out, I felt something really strange, and it kept coming back whenever I closed my eyes again. Even now, blinking's a bit of a challenge."

I studied her face for a moment and saw that her blinks seemed to draw out forever, and afterward she could only really look around with half-lidded eyes. "Maybe you're just too tired and stressed," I offered again.

"No," she said, shaking her head, which ended up being a mistake since it caused her to lose her balance and lean harder against me. "This is weird, like those dreams I've been having. And I haven't frozen onstage like that in years. Something's not right."

As she continued talking, I noticed that it was starting to become more of a challenge for her, and she was now clinging onto me for dear life to keep herself upright. Suddenly, she stopped dead in her tracks. "Jack, I think I'm going to faint again," she gasped out, shaking uncontrollably. Quickly, we stumbled into the nearest classroom, the art room, where she promptly went limp and fell to the floor before I could properly catch her.

I knelt down next to her crumpled form and shook her shoulder worriedly. "Darian!" I called, trying my best to wake her up. I looked around wildly, but there was no help in sight. I considered flying all the way back to the nurse, but it wasn't like she could see or hear me to do anything to help. Too concerned to pay attention to my surroundings, I didn't notice the fist flying towards my face until it had connected with my jaw.

I cried out and stumbled backwards. The hit had been hard enough to hurt but not to do any real damage. I leapt to my feet with my staff at the ready and spun around wildly in search of my attacker, but from what I could tell, there was no one in the room other than myself and Darian, who had miraculously pulled herself up onto all fours and was in the process of getting to her feet. I noticed almost immediately that something was wrong with her, though. Her movements weren't so much shaky and unsteady like one would expect, but more awkward and clumsy, like a marionette controlled by an inexperienced puppeteer. It was quite unsettling to watch, to say the least.

"Darian?" I called again, though a bit more hesitantly. She did not answer.

She drew herself up to nearly her full height, her head still rolled over against her chest so that I couldn't see her face, until suddenly, her head snapped up so she could look me straight in the eyes.

Those were not Darian's eyes.

Darian's eyes were cool and clear and open and honest. You could see her soul bared in those blue depths. Still, I knew these other eyes better than I wanted to, harsh and mean and malicious, their sickly yellow giving way to a dull gold and silver shimmer after regaining some of their former power.

Pitch Black.

"Darian?" I tried one last time to no avail. The only response this elicited was a small, crooked smile, but it was neither happy nor reassuring, only mocking. Before I even had time to wonder what was happening, not to mention the why or how, Not-Darian lurched towards me to take another swing. While the punch came at me hard and fast, the clumsiness of the action made it easy to dodge, and she stumbled into the wall.

I barely had time to breathe before she was coming at me again, and this time, instead of running, I pushed back. It was surprisingly easy despite how strong she was, given that she was also human and no real match for an Immortal, and just the small shove sent her flying back into a table before slumping to the ground. "Darian! Snap out of it!" I cried. To my horror, she began crawling back to her feet. I could only imagine the strain this must be putting her body through, but Pitch, however he must be controlling her, didn't seem to care.

Of course, it was only at that moment that I noticed how many dangerous items were actually in the art room, and Pitch just so happened to come to this realization at the same time, his eyes in Darian's head falling on a box of X-Actos and box cutters left out on the table from whatever project the class must be working on. Darian plunged her hand into the box, grabbing the first box cutter she could wrap her fingers around, but not before obtaining several cuts all over her hand from blades that hadn't been properly stored. She then started swinging the knife at me, leaving me helpless to do anything but dance out of the way until she backed me into a corner, at which point I simply flew up and out of her reach.

Darian snarled up at me, and the unnatural expression on her face made something in my gut twist. This was all terribly, horribly wrong. "Let her go, Pitch!" I demanded. "I'm not going to play your game."

There was no answer. Perhaps he hadn't quite figured out how to use her voice, and I was grateful for that. Still, the malicious, lopsided grin that stretched across her face was almost worse, and I could only watch in stunned horror as Darian lifted the blade and pressed it to her throat. The message was clear: Either I hurt her, or he would.

I was left at a crossroads. I could descend and let her continue attacking me, which would only injure her further, or I could refuse and be stuck watching Pitch do Moon knows what to her. I found a third path, however, and it was a risky one, but at that moment, it was the best I had.

"No!" I shouted as a thin red line appeared at the edge of the blade, and quickly, I formed a snowball and hurled it directly at her face, sending her stumbling back and causing her to drop the knife. Darian collapsed on the ground, and was still for several moments before I figured it was safe to come down again. I inched towards her on the ground and tentatively nudged her shoulder. "Darian?"

She groaned in pain, but it was the most beautiful sound I heard because it was _her,_ her voice and hers alone. She reached up to rub her aching forehead, and I helped her into a sitting position. "What the…what just…" she mumbled, unable to complete the thought. She slowly opened her eyes, and they almost immediately fell on the box cutter lying a few feet away before widening in shock. "Did I just…did I really…" Again, she couldn't finish her sentence, this time out of pure terror as her fingers flew up to the thin cut on her neck.

"Do you remember anything that just happened?" I asked her.

"Sort of. It's kind of a blur. It felt like I was dreaming, but it was real and…oh, jeez...I need…" She pointed with one hand, her other clasped around her mouth, and I understood. I flew her over to the nearest trashcan a few feet away and waited as she retched into it for a minute or two. When she was done, she collapsed back into my arms, sobbing and shaking.

"I tried to kill you!" she wailed. "I-I tried to kill m-mys…."

I shushed her softly and held her tighter, trying very hard not to cry myself at her pain. Truth be told, I was just as scared as she was over what had happened. I waited for her to calm down, not bothering to try and tell her that everything was okay because both of us knew that it certainly wasn't. Eventually, she sniffed and wiped the last of her tears from her face. "What are we supposed to do now?" she asked, her voice hoarse.

"Well, first we need to get you home. No rehearsal for you tonight," I instructed, trying to help her to her feet. It was no use. She was dizzy and tired and frightened beyond belief, so I abandoned the attempt and simply cradled her in my arms and carried her through the nearest window.

"Agreed." On the one hand, I couldn't help but find it slightly unnerving that she didn't even put up the smallest fight. Theatre was her life, after all, so this response was very unlike her. But on the other hand, I was relieved that she understood that in this area, at the very least, I happened to be the expert.

"Then we need to get you to the North Pole."

Darian's eyes somehow widened even further than before, and I wondered how many shocks she could really withstand over the course of one day. "You don't mean-"

"Yup. I think it's time you met the rest of the Guardians."

 **(Look at me updating somewhat consistently! I've been excited to post this chapter for a while, since it's kind of like the beginning of the end. There's still quite a few more chapters left, but we're finally past most of the relationship drama and moving on to other fun stuff. Of course, I use the term "fun" loosely, as things have taken a turn for the worse for poor Darian here. What did you think of this chapter and what do you think will happen next? Until next time!)**


	12. Chapter 12: Dead Girl Walking

**Darian**

Jack flew me home almost immediately, scooping me up in his arms since I wasn't sure I could really walk steady just yet. We snuck in from my balcony into my room, where he set me gently on my bed before moving into my closet. "I've got to warn you, this is going to be a long and unpleasant flight," he said. "Do you have anything thicker than your red coat?"

I gave the slightest shake of my head. Winters were generally mild in Georgia, and despite all of the recent snow, I still hadn't thought it worthwhile to buy a heavy coat. Mentally, I added that to the top of my to-do list once all of this was over. It would probably come in handy if I was to continue dating the Spirit of Winter.

"I guess you'll just have to wear a lot of layers," he sighed, grabbing a clean long-sleeved shirt, sweater, and jacket all to wear underneath my standard red coat. When he turned back around to hand them to me, his eyes immediately fell on something on my shelf and widened. "Wait a minute. Is that what I think it is?" He dropped the clothes in the floor and flew over to whatever it was that had captured his attention.

"What is it?" I asked. In answer, Jack plucked the snow globe I had gotten from Christmas off the shelf and held it out to me with a wide grin. "I don't understand."

"Did you get this from North?" Jack inquired.

"It was in my stocking Christmas morning, so probably," I replied. "What does that have to do with anything?"

"Do you remember all that time ago when I was first explaining the Guardians to you, and I told you about how North is able to travel all the way around the world?" he prompted.

"Magic snow globes!" I suddenly recalled. "I just didn't think that this could be one of them. I mean, Jamie and Sophie each got one, too."

"North gives them one every year," Jack explained. "When dormant, they just display a favorite location of theirs, so that their parents don't get suspicious. In an emergency, they can be used to travel just like any of his others." Jack took a closer look at the scene in my snow globe, and his expression softened. "That's…that's the pond I took you to."

"I guess you made quite the impression on me then," I said, happy to have found this one bright spot in what seemed to be a hopeless situation.

"I guess so." Jack sat down next to me on the bed and pressed a quick kiss to my cheek. "Anyway, this should get us to the North Pole." As he spoke, he shook the snow globe, and somehow, while the flurries obscured the glass, the image changed from the pond to a bustling workshop. While fascinated by this, I was a little sad to see the pond go, and I briefly wondered if it would be too much to ask North to make me a permanent snow globe. "Ready?"

"I probably should change," I said, slowing drawing to my feet for the first time. I felt gross all over after the events of the day, and without time for a proper shower, changing clothes would be the closest to clean I could get. I grabbed the sweater off the floor and a fresh pair of jeans before wandering into the bathroom for privacy, but I still left the door slightly cracked, just in case anything should happen.

Changing took me a lot longer than usual due to my wrecked hand. It was bruised and swollen from punching Jack and covered with several tiny cuts that stung whenever anything brushed them, and I could only hope that nothing had broken with the show coming up.

Speaking of the show, once I had gotten dressed, I whipped out my phone to text my mom, telling her that I would be spending the night at Miranda's. After that, I texted Miranda, saying that I couldn't make it to rehearsal, but that if anyone asked, I was staying with her for the night. Quickly, I added that I would tell her what was going on as soon as I got back, knowing that she would insist on it either way.

Jack was waiting for me when I emerged, having already gathered my coat, boots, scarf, gloves, and hat in his impatience to leave. "You probably won't need them, since there's no reason you'd go outside, but I thought it better to be safe than sorry," he explained. I nodded, slipping on the coat and boots as fast as I could before stuffing the rest in my pockets. Strangely, it didn't strike me as odd for Jack to suddenly appear so responsible. For all of his recklessness, he was almost always reliable in tough situations.

When I was finished, Jack shook the snow globe once more before throwing it down on the floor. A flurry of snow shot up from where it shattered before clearing away to reveal a shimmering portal that spun in midair with dizzying speed. I took a nervous step back, suddenly reminded of how large and strange the world of Immortals truly was and how little I felt in comparison. I realized again with a start that I really had no idea what I was getting into, and all of my old regrets started to resurface.

As if sensing my anxiety, Jack reached for my hand, only for me to cry out in pain and retract it. "Sorry!" he apologized quickly, his hands still hovering nearby as though trying to figure out how to comfort me. "It slipped my mind for a moment. We'll have to get that fixed at the Pole."

One arm finally settled around my waist and drew me close to him. "It's a bit jarring the first time through," he warned. Doing my best to swallow my fear, I allowed myself to be led into the portal. Still, I couldn't help but give one last backwards glance over my shoulder at my room, hoping that it wouldn't be too long before I saw it again.

My room then gave way to blinding lights and flashing colors as I lurched forward and my feet left the ground. I could hear nothing but what seemed to be rushing wind in my ears, and as we twisted and hurtled through the vortex, the only thing I was aware of was Jack's arm, cold and strong, still wrapped around my waist, and if it wasn't for that arm, I would have fallen to the hard stone floor once our feet hit solid ground after what felt like an eternity, though in reality could only have been a second or two, at most. As it was, I had to brace myself against my knees and try very hard not to vomit for the second time that day.

Jack stayed by my side while I recovered. "If it helps, you're handling it a lot better than I did the first time," he assured me.

"Really?" I managed to gasp out.

"I mean, I was tossed through it after being shoved in a sack, but still." He gave a shrug. "It gets easier after a while. Sometimes, it's actually fun."

"I'm sure," I agreed sarcastically, rolling my eyes at him as I straightened up. "I think I prefer flying."

"You and me both," Jack chuckled.

"Jack!" a new voice called out, thunderous and jovial. A mountain of a man stepped out from one of the adjoining hallways. I had expected the long white beard and round belly, but despite hearing the more accurate descriptions from both Jack and Jamie, the "Naughty" and "Nice" tattoos on his muscular arms still managed to surprise me, as did the saber tucked into his belt. This, I knew, was Nicholas St. North, better known to the children of the world of Santa Claus.

Holy fudge, I was in the same room as the real life Santa Claus.

And that room just so happened to be his workshop.

I tore my eyes away from the hulking figure approaching us to finally get a good look at our surroundings and realized that we weren't really in a room. It appeared more like an observation deck to the countless levels below, or possibly something like a meeting space. The floor was decorated with a five-pointed design – one point in particular having been added only recently – that featured each of the Guardians of Childhood. At the railing of the deck was a large console covered in blinking lights and buttons with labels in languages I had never seen before, and this console seemed to operate, among other things, the gigantic globe covered in pinpricks of light that took up the center of the workshop, and surrounding this globe were flying toys that I could never dream up in a thousand years. I could hear clanking and shouting down below and could only wonder at what fantastic creations were being constructed there, and if I hadn't chosen to glue myself to Jack in my nervousness about our present situation, I might have been tempted to take a peek.

"I see you've brought a friend," North noted with a hint of suspicion in his tone. This drew my attention back to our host, and I realized that I had been gaping. I offered a shy smile but found myself a little too intimidated to properly speak.

"This is Darian, Jamie's cousin," Jack introduced.

"Ah, yes!" North exclaimed, nodding his head. "You've mentioned her before."

I glanced over at Jack a bit in confusion, but he didn't offer to elaborate. "Darian, this is North."

"Nice to meet you," I greeted, trying not to let my voice shake and betray my anxiety about this whole mess. I offered up my hand to shake, and North took it warmly, though his hands dwarfed mine.

"And you, as well," he said politely. Turning his attention back to Jack, North scolded, "My door is always open, Jack, and you are most certainly welcome to bring guests, but a little warning might be nice."

"Sorry, but this is a bit of an emergency," Jack explained hastily.

"What kind of emergency?" North asked, but before he could finish, Jack had flown over to the console and had pushed down some kind of lever. My jaw dropped as Northern Lights suddenly sprang to life overhead. "What are you doing?"

"I'll explain when everyone gets here. It's kind of a long story." Jack cast a glance back my way before adding, "Could you have Mrs. Claus bring up a first aid kid or something? Darian's hand is badly hurt."

Both sets of eyes turned to me, and I blushed while self-consciously drawing my hand close to my chest. Much like Jack, I couldn't stand to be fussed over, and I had endured it plenty that day. "It's not that bad," I mumbled, looking at anything but their faces in a sad attempt to hide the fact I was lying. Truthfully, the pain in my hand had only increased to the point where it was almost excruciating, now that we were in a relatively quiet place compared to recent events and there was no adrenaline to mask it.

North raised an eyebrow at me before barking something at an elf that sounded like Russian, though I wasn't too familiar with the language outside of composer's names I had picked up in chorus. He then muttered something about preparing for the other Guardians' arrivals and sauntered off with a few elves tottering around his feet. Once, he nearly stepped on one and let out a shout that I _knew_ was Russian, for it was the name of one of those composers, and I couldn't help but stifle a small giggle.

"I thought you'd get a kick out of that," Jack said, laughing right along with me. He led me over to a massive fireplace, fitting for the large room and the giant who built it, where I gladly shed my coat. We sat down in front of it where the stones were warm and rested in silence for a moment.

For once, I was the one to break it. "They're all coming, huh?" I asked nervously.

"Don't worry. You've already met Tooth, and North's out of the way now. Two down. Two to go."

Despite his attempts to reassure me, I couldn't help but worry. I knew it was irrational, that these were all kind beings who devoted their endless lives to protecting the children of the world, but they were also powerful Immortals and Jack's family, and I certainly wasn't meeting them under the best of circumstances. The fact that many of them possibly disapproved of Jack dating a mortal didn't help things, either.

At the sound of footsteps approaching from behind, both of us turned away from the fire to see who it was, and again, I was star-struck and stunned into silence. Although she had never been thoroughly described to me before, I knew at once that I was looking at Mrs. Claus. "I hear you need this," she said, holding up a standard first-aid kit.

"Thanks," Jack said, nodding and flying over to take it from her, but Mrs. Claus held it just out of reach.

"Not so fast," she scolded. "If her hand really is badly hurt, you better let me take a look at it, first."

"Right. Sorry." Jack immediately settled down and awkwardly stuck his hands in his hoodie pocket. It was almost comical seeing the devil-may-care Jack Frost submit so easily to another Immortal's authority, but then I remembered that part of his current reticence came from concern about me and what was happening, and I managed not to laugh.

"Hello there, Darian," Mrs. Claus greeted as she walked over to me, probably having heard my name mentioned to her by North or even Jack before (to the list of things to do when this whole ordeal was finished, I added "ask Jack why he was talking to North about me"). I stood so that she wouldn't have to kneel down on the hard stone floor to examine me and offered up my hand. "Now, let's see here." She took it gently in hers, and while I would normally hesitate in such close proximity to a stranger, I found her presence strangely comforting. She seemed to emanate a sort of motherly warmth that instantly relaxed me, and I wondered if it was simply natural or if there was some magical origin to it.

She turned my hand this way and that, looking over it at every angle. I was asked to stretch my fingers out and then curl them into a fist, and when asked how that had felt, I admitted that it had been very painful to move them. Jack hovered over her shoulder the whole time, oddly silent. Finally, she released my hand and turned to address the two of us with instructions – mainly Jack, since I couldn't do much with only the use of my left hand. "It doesn't appear to be broken, but it might be sprained. Treat the cuts first; there's some peroxide and bandages in the kit. After that, you'll want to put on the elastic wrap for compression and apply ice to bring down the swelling," she told us, casting a wink and a smile towards Jack at the end.

"Thank you," I said timidly, as these were the first words I had spoken to her this entire time.

"You're very welcome," she replied warmly. "Such a polite girl. I bet you've never made the Naughty List in your life."

I felt my face heat up from the compliment. "Oh, I'm not so sure about that," I tried to say, considering recent events and all, but Mrs. Claus wouldn't hear any of it.

"And modest too!" she chuckled. "Alright, you get to work on fixing yourself up, and I'll fetch you two some hot chocolate."

Too flustered to say "thank you" again as she hustled back down the hallway, I simply sank back down to the floor with Jack joining me soon after. "So?" asked Jack, opening up the first-aid kit and scattering the necessary supplies around us. "That wasn't so bad, right?"

"She's very kind," I answered after a moment. Jack wetted a cotton-ball with hydrogen peroxide and started dabbing it on the cuts to clean them. I winced and gave a sharp hiss when I felt the first sting.

"Sorry." He attempted to be gentler, but there really was no helping it. Thankfully, it didn't take long, and before I knew it, he was already applying the bandages. "You know, she's not that way with everyone."

"Really?"

"Really. I've seen her get plenty mad before, sometimes at me if I really screw something up at the Pole, and there are a few Immortals that she's snippy with, at best," Jack told me as he worked. "She really seemed to take to you, though."

"I wonder why that is."

Jack only shrugged, unraveling the roll of elastic wrap before twisting it around my wrist and hand. "Who knows? Whatever the reason, I'm glad."

"Why is that?" I wondered.

"Because I love you," he stated simply before explaining, "and I want you to feel like you belong here just as much as I do. I know that sometimes my world is hectic and even terrifying, and that you haven't exactly had the best experiences with Immortals, especially lately. Still, I want to show you what's great about it."

"Hey, don't worry about it," I tried to assure him, but my voice came out breathy due to my pounding heart. I wondered if I would ever get used to him saying that he loved me or saying it in return. "I love you, and this is a part of you, so if you say it's great, I believe you, no matter what happens."

Jack smiled, and I realized how close we were, kneeling by the fire with our knees touching and our heads bent towards each other to speak without anyone else hearing. At some point, he had finished wrapping my wrist and had placed both of his hands around my injured one, his icy skin providing cool relief by numbing away the pain. I wanted to kiss him, and I could see that he wanted the same, but there was an unspoken agreement between us that this was the wrong place and the wrong time, so we remained still and continued to hold each other.

A moment later, I was glad that nothing else had happened. Someone cleared their throat nearby, startling us out of a mutual daze. I tore my hand away as a last measure, only to once again lift it to my mouth to politely cover the fact that my jaw had dropped at the sight of our new visitor. Like before, descriptions never did justice to the real thing, and never in my wildest dreams could I imagine that a six-foot Easter Bunny could be intimidating. "Who's she?" he asked tersely without any word of greeting beforehand. I wondered how long he had been standing there.

Mentally urging myself to do better than before, I scrambled to my feet and brushed off my knees. I offered up my right hand, only to remember last minute that it was injured and switched it out for my left. Warily, the Easter Bunny shook it with an unsettlingly firm grip while looking me up and down with sharp green eyes. "I'm Darian Bennett," I said, wincing slightly at the quiver in my voice that betrayed my nervousness.

"Jamie's cousin," Jack added a little too hastily. "Darian, this is Bunny."

Bunny glanced between the two of us briefly, and his scowl only seemed to deepen. "Uh-huh," he grumbled skeptically before turning his full attention to Jack. "Can you tell me why we were summoned here? It's getting a little too close to Easter for comfort, mate."

"Like I told North, it's kind of a long story, so I'd rather wait until everyone gets here," Jack replied.

"Fine," Bunny sighed. "Where is the big oaf, anyway? I better go find him before he delays the meeting again." With that, Bunny hopped off, grumbling to himself the entire way.

"I don't think he likes me," I concluded, releasing a breath I didn't know I was holding.

"I don't think he likes anyone," Jack joked, and neither of us could refrain from bursting out into laughter.

As our laughter died down, two new figures flew in from a hatch in the ceiling. One I recognized easily as Tooth, and the other I could only assume was the Sandman, a round little being seemingly made up of his eponymous Dream Sand. "Darian!" Tooth exclaimed in surprise upon fluttering down to the deck. A question mark formed above the Sandman's head as he looked up at her curiously, but she pretended not to notice as she ordered around an entourage of tinier fairies, one of which flew over to Jack to rest on his shoulder. The little fairy squeaked something unintelligible in his ear while pointing at me, and Jack laughed.

"Darian, you know Tooth," he said, gesturing to her before moving on to the Sandman. "This is Sandy."

"Hello," I greeted with a small wave. Sandy conjured up a bowler hat out of thin air and tipped it my direction with a slight bow. I had to admit, while I didn't always appreciate his magic, I found the man himself rather charming.

"And this," Jack continued, allowing the little fairy to perch on his finger as he held her out to me, "is Baby Tooth."

"It's nice to meet you," I said, marveling at the tiny creature. She squeaked something in response that drew soft chuckles from everyone else except Sandy, who didn't appear to be able to make any noise at all, and I wondered if I was missing something. "What? What did she say?"

"Something along the lines of, 'And you as well, as long as you don't go disappearing down any dark corners again.' Jack actually tried to introduce you two before, but it, uh, didn't work out," Tooth explained. "Come to think of it, that probably wasn't in the best taste."

"No worries," I told her, waving off her concern. Even so, the comment reminded me of why Jack and I had come in the first place, and I felt my heart race and my stomach tie itself in knots all over again. Trying to cover up my discomfort, I inquired, "How have you been, Tooth?"

"Busy, as usual," she answered. Sandy tugged on her arm and flashed a more insistent question mark. "Oh, um…" Tooth looked nervously between him and me. "Sandy wants to know how we know each other."

I froze up, casting an uncertain glance at Jack. Explaining that I met Tooth when she saved me from falling would require explaining why it was necessary in the first place – that Jack had been drawn to me after being hit by Cupid's arrow and burnt out mid-flight. We still hadn't discussed how exactly we planned on telling the Guardians that we really were dating, but if Sandy's curiosity was any indication, it wasn't going to stay a secret for very much longer.

Thankfully, I was saved from answering by North's and Bunny's reappearances, along with some unfortunately familiar faces. "Darian!" exclaimed Jamie, rushing forward to wrap me in a hug. Sophie, who had previously been glued to Bunny's side, followed soon after, and proceeded to dance around and chant my name. "I'm so glad you're al—what happened to your hand?"

"I –"

"Darian! I lost a tooth! See?" Sophie quickly pushed Jamie out of the way to occupy my full attention, pulling back her mouth to reveal a gap in her teeth.

"It certainly was a beautiful one," Tooth added, beaming at the little girl.

"That's great, Soph, but what are you two doing here?" Jack asked, seeing how quickly I was being overwhelmed.

"I figured that if the problem had anything to do with Darian, her family had a right to know," North explained.

"That, uh…" Jack began, but he couldn't seem to find much fault in the logic, and neither could I. It was a fair assumption, but after attacking Jack, I wasn't sure if it was the safest idea to have my youngest cousins around.

"There's a problem with Darian?" Jamie asked, looking between me and Jack with concern. My first instinct was to assure both him and Sophie that no, everything was alright, but that would be a blatant lie, and I knew Jamie wouldn't stand that for a second.

"Yes," Jack answered after a beat of hesitation. "Sort of. It's a long story."

"You've been saying that a lot, lately," Bunny remarked, rolling his eyes. "Go on. We're all here now and listening."

Jack began to recount the events that led up to this moment, leaving certain specific details out, of course. He started at the beginning, explaining how we met through Jamie and how he discovered through his interactions with me that certain people could be more susceptible or more resistant to certain types of magic, my weakness in particular being Pitch's fear that he creates, which tended to cause me to reject Jack's magic on occasion. Jack then went on to tell that his suspicions were confirmed when he caught Pitch hanging around me, and after discovering that Jack and I were friends, he began to target me specifically, leading up to the more recent confrontation where I had nearly been killed by an arrow of Nightmare sand. He told the Guardians that he had been sticking closer to me since then, but despite his efforts, it seemed that Pitch had one last trick up his sleeve: the ability to control my actions whenever I fell asleep.

When Jack finished, I looked around the room to gauge everyone's reactions but immediately wished I hadn't, for all their eyes were trained on me, except for Tooth's, who knew a bit more about the situation and was nervously trying to look everywhere but at me. Sandy looked intensely uncomfortable, especially after hearing about my near-death experience that paralleled his in what I figured must have been a deliberate attempt to disturb Jack at the time. Bunny was incredulous, as if he hadn't quite figured out if he believed what he just heard, and North appeared to be studying me, a serious expression over his face as he stroked his beard in thought. Jamie stared up at me in absolute horror, unaware that the situation had got this bad, while Sophie clung to him, not quite understanding what all was going on but knowing through her child intuition that it wasn't good.

It was a long time before anyone said anything, and when the silence was broken, it wasn't by anyone in the room. "Hot chocolate, anyone?" asked Mrs. Claus, striding in from one of the adjacent hallways and carrying one tray of mugs while flanked by two Yetis doing the same. The Yetis attended to the Guardians while Mrs. Claus served me, Jack, and Jamie and Sophie. As I thanked her for the refreshment, she gave me a pitying look that seemed to indicate that she had been listening from the hallway this entire time, waiting for a better opportunity to diffuse the tension. "Well, I'll leave you Guardians to your business," she said with a nod as she exited the room, leaving us again in a stunned silence.

"I swear I'm gonna kill Pitch!" Bunny exclaimed suddenly with such fervor that I jumped back in surprise. "This is low, even for him!"

Jamie raised his hand to call attention to himself. "You have to remember that this is the same guy who tried to kill me three years ago. 'There's more than one way to snuff out a light,' anyone?"

Jack patted Jamie's shoulder, frowning at the memory. "We remember, Jamie. I think we're all just a little shaken by this new power," he said.

"Yes, it is most unsettling," North concurred, still seeming deep in thought.

"How is this even possible?" Tooth wondered. She turned to Sandy. "Can you do that?"

Sandy only shrugged.

"North, what are we going to do?" Tooth asked, sounding like she was on the verge of panicking.

"I'm not sure we can do anything," North said, still staring at me intently. "We do not yet know how he is doing this. It seems to me that there are only two solutions right now. The most ideal one would be to capture Pitch and force him to stop, but we do not know how to track him, and that could take a very long time, longer than maybe he is willing to let Darian live." I swallowed hard at that. "The other option we have is to try and understand how he is doing this on our own and try to defend against it the best we can."

"Excuse me," I interjected nervously, turning red when all eyes turned on me again as I spoke officially for the first time in this meeting. "Are you suggesting that I _allow_ Pitch do that to me again?"

"Only if you're comfortable with it," Tooth added, realizing quickly after that she had said the wrong thing.

"Obviously, I'm not!" I cried.

"You'd be in the best hands," Bunny assured me, showing tenderness that I had not witnessed in him before. "We'll all be right here in case anything happens."

"Besides," said Jack, "you're going to have to go to sleep eventually. This way, we'll be able to make sure nobody gets hurt."

I took a deep breath to try and calm down, knowing in my head that they were all making logical sense. It was just very hard to accept what I had to do. Eventually, I hung my head in resignation. "I don't know if I even could fall asleep knowing what's waiting for me," I admitted in one last-ditch attempt to avoid my fate.

"That's what he's for," Bunny said matter-of-factly, pointing over at Sandy, who gave a friendly wave.

"I guess," I said slowly, "if it's the only way…"

Before I could even finish my sentence, North had called over a Yeti and a handful of elves. "Bring up a mattress, a blanket, and some pillows, and set them near the fireplace."

"W-wait, what?" I stammered.

"Would you rather sleep on the stone floor?" North chuckled.

"No, I just…right now?"

"There is no better time than the present. Is there anything else you might like? A stuffed animal? A glass of milk?" North offered.

"No, thanks," I replied quietly. "Actually, I don't use pillows all that often."

North nodded and barked the new instructions at the elves who had just come scurrying in with a stack of pillows, causing them to groan and shuffle back out the door. A Yeti, whom both Jamie and Jack enthusiastically introduced as the famous Phil, set a plush mattress down in front of the fire while the rest of the elves covered it with an intricately decorated quilt. Awkwardly, I sat down on the mattress and tucked my legs under the blanket, trying to shrug off how weird it was that everyone would be watching me sleep for who knows how long. Jamie and Sophie each walked up to give me a reassuring hug, and Jack, noticing my discomfort in such an odd situation, briefly leaned in close so he could speak without the other Guardians overhearing.

"It's going to be alright," Jack promised. "They know what they're doing."

I rolled my eyes. "Probably better than you did, at least. I just wonder how many times Immortals are going to insist on watching me sleep."

"That was one time!" The both of us laughed at for a moment before the seriousness of the situation seemed to set in once again.

"I love you," I whispered, hardly daring to move my lips in case the others noticed.

"I love you, too," Jack replied, just as quietly, "and I won't let anything happen to you."

Jack flew back then before our conversation had the chance to go on suspiciously long. I curled up further under the quilt and tucked my arm under my head. "Okay. I'm ready," I announced.

With a wave of his hand, Sandy conjured up a thick stream of Dream Sand that swirled and arced over the room before collecting in a cloud just above my head, raining golden flecks into my eyes until they were too heavy to keep open, and peacefully, I drifted off into a quiet sleep.

 **Jack**

"So, now what?" Jamie asked as soon as Darian was fast asleep and the room had gone quiet.

"I suppose we should take shifts watching her to see if anything happens. The rest can discuss what course of action we must take next," North suggested.

I was about to offer to take the first watch, but I caught Jamie's eye as I opened my mouth, and he gave a shake of his head to remind me of how my eagerness might look to the others. "I think Sandy should go first," I said instead. "This is his area of expertise, after all." The others nodded in agreement to this and left Sandy to silently watch over Darian while the rest of us shuffled off to North's private office.

"Jamie, how is it that you've never talked about your cousin before?" Bunny asked skeptically on the way there. Tooth and I exchanged a nervous glance. Obviously, Bunny suspected Darian to be the girl that Cupid had mentioned, but he was still searching for more evidence to back it up.

Fortunately, he wouldn't be getting too much juicy information out of Jamie. "I hadn't seen her in a long time before she came to visit for Christmas, so there wasn't much to talk about," he explained. "She ended up being pretty cool, though, and it didn't take too long to get her to believe in the Guardians."

"Yes, I was wondering about that," said North. "How strange for someone her age."

Jamie only shrugged. "She's related to _me_ , guys. I don't think it's too farfetched." Everyone nodded in agreement with this, even Bunny, albeit reluctantly.

The party entered North's personal workshop, but instead of immediately latching the door for privacy, we thought it best to leave it open, just in case there was any emergency. Jamie, Sophie, and I took a seat on the bench while Tooth chose to remain hovering and Bunny anxiously paced back and forth. "What now?" I asked as North took a seat in the large chair behind his desk.

"I suppose the only thing we can do is try and track down Pitch while we try to figure out his new power," North replied.

"I'm all for hunting the sick jerk down," Bunny said eagerly, cracking his knuckles.

"But how?" wondered Tooth. "We haven't been able to find him in nearly three years."

North turned to me. "Jack, you were the last to see him. Was there anything that he did or said that might have given away his hiding place?"

I shook my head. "Like I said, he broke my staff so that I couldn't go after him last time. I mean, the entrance to his labyrinth has opened up twice by the pond in Burgess, but it never stays. He only ever seems to pop up when he wants to be found, usually when he has a message for us."

"What if," Tooth began slowly, "we had a message for him?"

We all turned to look at Tooth in confusion. "Interesting," North said with a slow nod of his head. "What would you have us do?"

"Well, I was just thinking that Pitch never seems to be completely cruel unless he wants something, which means that he's using Darian as leverage. What if we agreed to listen to his demands? Maybe even find some way to make a deal with him?" Tooth explained.

"No," I said immediately. "No deals. Not with him. Besides, we already know what he wants: revenge."

"That may be true, but at the very least it could buy us some time to get a real plan together," North countered.

I was about to object again, but before I could, Bunny added, "I don't like it either, but it's the best plan we've got. We only need to figure out how to get it done. If you've got a better plan, go ahead and tell us."

I opened my mouth again but closed it almost immediately after, knowing that they were right.

"Well, I suppose we should let Sandy know." North turned to me again. "Jack, go take the next watch and send him down here so we can brief him on what is going on. Maybe he can help us come up with a way to contact Pitch."

I wanted to protest, to kick and scream and force everyone to come up with some other plan, but I didn't. I quick look at Jamie reminded me of what was at stake here, and as I stood to exit the room as calmly as I could manage, he and Sophie stood, as well. "We'll go with you," Jamie announced, and together, the three of us strode through the open doorway.

I managed to make it all the way to the elevator before losing my composure. "I hate this plan!" I snapped. "I'm sick of everyone making deals with Pitch! Can't anyone else see that it never ends well?"

"What other choice do we have?" Jamie asked. "We can't really launch an attack with Darian's life on the line. It's like they said, it'll at least buy us some time to figure out something else."

I couldn't find it in me to respond. I was too frustrated to be confronted with clear logic at the moment, and I stubbornly refused to listen.

We reached the deck, where nothing seemed to have really changed. A golden halo of sand still hovered above Darian's sleeping form by the fireplace while Sandy waited nearby, her silent, watchful guardian. He held up a finger to his lips as we approached, reminding us to be quiet so as not to wake her. In a whisper, I explained to him what was going on, and we traded places. Once Sandy rounded the corner and was out of sight, Jamie and I knelt down on either side of Darian's mattress while Sophie ran off to torment an unsuspecting elf.

"This is all so strange," Jamie muttered after a short period of silence. Seeking some distraction, he busied himself with stoking the fire with one of the fireplace pokers from a nearby rack.

"Tell me something I don't know," I chuckled quietly, watching Darian's dreams twirl and tumble from one to the other, never really lingering on one for too long.

"What I mean is that I'm used to strangeness with you, and most of the time, it's fun, but something like this, something evil targeting someone you love…I guess it's just hard to process." Jamie finally turned away from the fire and set the poker on the floor beside him. "I don't know. Maybe it's just easier to believe in all of the good stuff in the world because we really want it to be real, but when the bad stuff happens, we don't want to believe it? Does that make any sense?"

I only shrugged. "I don't know, Jamie. Honestly, Darian's much better at overthinking everything than I am, so that might actually be a better question for her."

"Heh. Yeah." Jamie cast a fond look down at his cousin.

"In all seriousness, though, I'm going to do everything I can to make Darian safe again," I promised.

Jamie smiled at me. "I know you will, and when this is all over, I really hope you two can stay together. It'd be really cool to actually have you in the family."

"Whoah! Getting a little ahead of ourselves there!" I exclaimed, holding up my hands defensively. We both laughed at this until Jamie abruptly stopped, eyes widening in horror.

"Jack," he said weakly. "Jack, look."

I followed his gaze to Darian's dream, and I felt my heart drop. Little by little, the golden glow of her halo began to fade away, overcome by black sand that appeared to have no origin. There was nothing we could do but watch as the tiny golden figure of Darian, once happy and laughing, was overcome by the darkness and crumbled into nothing with a silent scream. Throughout all of this, Darian tossed and turned on the mattress, only falling still when at last, the Nightmare fell apart and dissolved into nothingness above her head.

Silent seconds ticked by, during which I held my breath, and all I could hear was my heart pounding in my ears. "What just happened?" Jamie finally asked.

I didn't answer, unable to shake the feeling that this was only the calm before the storm. I stared down at Darian, and her position immediately seemed wrong. If it was truly over, Darian would have either woken up or returned to her normal sleeping position, and she had done neither. I knew that she preferred to sleep curled up on her side, but now, she was stretched out on her stomach, one armed bent beneath her head, the other hanging off the mattress, her hand resting on the fireplace poker.

The pieces suddenly clicked together in my mind. "Jamie, move!" I cried, and Darian immediately sprang into action afterward. Her hand closed around the poker, and she pushed herself off of the mattress to swing it at me. Having been preoccupied with ensuring Jamie's safety, I was too slow to move out of the way, myself, and I saw stars as the metal rod collided with my head. Darian stumbled to her feet and raised her weapon to strike again, but I managed to reorient myself enough to roll away in the nick of time.

As the sound of metal striking stone rang through the air, I called out to Jamie, "Take Sophie and go get the others!" He obeyed, but not without casting one last terrified look at Darian before he and his sister disappeared down the hallway. With the two of them out of harm's way, I took up my staff and prepared to face Darian, or rather, Pitch. I saw the golden glint of his eyes, so wrong in Darian's skull, and enraged at what he had done, I lunged forward.

My staff collided with the poker countless times, and while she may have had the element of surprise before, she was still no match for an Immortal's strength. Eventually, I managed to push her back enough to conjure up a snowball, and as she rushed towards me again, I threw it directly into her face. She faltered, one hand reaching up to her head as she swayed where she stood. I relaxed my stance and held my staff out to the side, so I wouldn't alarm her when she came to. "Darian?" I said gently.

Finally, she shook the snow out of her eyes, only to snap them open to reveal still-golden irises, now flaming with anger. Caught off guard once again, I had no time to raise my staff to defend myself, so I braced myself to take another painful blow.

It never came. Just as the rod was about to come down once again on my head, a golden whip sailed through the air and snatched it from her grip. It clattered off to the side, useless. I turned my head to see that the rest of the Guardians had arrived. Despite the distraction, Darian wasted no time in rushing forward again, her hands closing around my throat. I saw North begin to instinctively draw a sword, but I managed to choke out a firm "no." I grabbed Darian's wrists and pried her hands off of me without too much trouble and pushed her a few feet away, giving me time to leap into the air just as she lunged at me again.

"Pitch is controlling her, but Darian's still in there," I reminded them, and North reluctantly tucked the sword back in its sheath. "We can't hurt her, but if we don't fight…" I never got to finish that sentence. I looked down and saw that without any options left, Darian was making a beeline for the fireplace, hand outstretched towards the flames. "Stop her!"

Sandy's whip shot out again and caught Darian by the wrist just in time, but she continued to strain against it and reach for the fire, all while glaring the five of us down. "What did you do to snap her out of it last time?" Tooth asked hurriedly as Darian yanked hard on the whip, gaining an inch. She was pulling with all of her might, but Sandy was unable to do the same for fear of breaking her arm or dislocating her shoulder. A few tooth fairies flew over and started tugging on her clothes and trying to pull back her hand.

"I threw a snowball at her, but it didn't work this time!" I explained.

"Well, hurry up and think of something else!" Bunny urged, not that he was being much help at the moment.

I fumbled around for ideas for a few critical seconds, looking back and forth between the Guardians and Darian before I realized that there was really only one option left. I landed a safe distance away from Darian, and stared down Pitch's blazing eyes. "Pitch," I called out to him, hoping that this would work. "If you can hear me, can we please just talk about this? No one needs to get hurt. We're willing…" I had to take a moment to swallow my pride and the bile that rose in my throat at these words. "We're willing to make a deal."

Pitch's eyes seemed to gaze at me curiously for a few endless moments before rolling back into Darian's head. Her eyes fluttered shut, and her body suddenly went limp and crashed to the floor thanks to the pull of Sandman's whip. Abandoning all caution, I threw my staff to the side and ran to her to make sure she was okay. She seemed too still, and for too long I wasn't even sure she was breathing, but hardly a second later, her eyes snapped wide open, and she inhaled a long painful gasp.

I was about to breathe a sigh of relief, but before I could, she suddenly grabbed the front of my shirt and stared up at me with tears in her blessedly blue eyes. " _Meetmeinthelabyrinthsameplacecomealoneorelseyourgirlfrienddies!_ " she spat out all in one breath.

"What?" was all I could say as she struggled to catch her breath, one hand releasing me to clutch at her heart.

"Meet me in the labyrinth. Same place. Come alone or else your girlfriend dies," she repeated in between gasps. "That's what he said to tell you." That was all she managed to say before she burst out in sobs, and I drew her closer to me so she could hide her tears from the others.

The other Guardians approached, now that it was safe, and from the looks on their faces, I knew immediately that I was in trouble.

"I think," Bunny said, somewhat smugly, "that there's something you forgot to tell us, Jack."

 **(Still here and still determined to finish this story! I enjoyed finally getting to write this chapter, and I can't wait to hear what you guys think of it. Be sure to favorite, follow, and review, and tune in next month for some answers about what's going on with Darian and what Tooth mentioned to Darian a few chapters ago.)**


	13. Chapter 13: Wise Men Say

**Jack**

Darian was understandably in hysterics after the attack, and it took several long minutes of gentle reassurances to calm her down. Even then, Mrs. Claus offered to carry her into a nearby room to examine her injuries again, so that she wouldn't have to stand on her own shaky legs. Once they had disappeared from sight, I was left alone to face judgement from the other Guardians.

"So," I began awkwardly, "I guess the cat's out of the bag." I tried laughing to ease the tension, but I was met with only silence. "Wow. Tough crowd."

North was the first to speak. "Jack, why did you not tell us sooner?"

Tooth and I glanced nervously at each other before she admitted, "Actually, I knew, but I thought it would be best if Jack told you all himself."

"How could you be so stupid?" Bunny exclaimed.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"Rushing into a relationship with a mortal? Putting her in danger?" he said.

"I didn't rush!" I protested. This was met with skeptical looks from each of the Guardians. "Okay, maybe _I_ did, but Darian knew the risks of being with me, and she still wanted to after thinking long and hard about it. Tooth can back me up on this."

Everyone turned to Tooth for confirmation, and she nodded. "Jack's right. She's quite a bit more cautious than he is."

"Well, that's not a very high bar to set," Bunny muttered under his breath.

Tooth slapped him lightly on the shoulder. "What I'm saying is that Darian's not an idiot. She knew what she was getting into."

"Still, I can't help but think it somewhat irresponsible that Jack got her involved in the first place," North said.

"She's Jamie and Sophie's cousin, and they're already involved. Besides, Pitch was already going after her before we met. It was only a matter of time before something else happened," I countered.

"Yes, but your relationship with her has only made her a bigger target," North added.

I threw my hands up in frustration. "Well, what would you have me do? She's already involved, and nothing we do can change that."

"What's done is done," Tooth said, trying to diffuse the tension. "We need to worry about what to do next."

"Tooth is right," North agreed. He strode over to me and rested an almost-comforting hand on my shoulder. "But Jack, please do not hesitate to tell us something like this next time. You did nothing wrong, except maybe act a little reckless, but that is not against the rules. If we had known sooner, perhaps things might have turned out a little differently."

"Meaning that you all would have tried to discourage dating Darian in the first place," I said.

"Maybe," North said cryptically, casting a secret, conspiratorial wink my way.

"I would have," Bunny said, much less cryptically.

"The point is," North went on, "we are all a part of a team. We do not keep secrets from each other, and we will work together to solve our problems. Now, what are we going to do about this meeting?"

"I have to go," I stated. "Alone."

"Absolutely not!" Bunny cried.

"What choice do I have?" I asked. "He said to come alone or Darian dies, and I'm not going to risk that."

"You see?" said Bunny, hopping forward and gesturing at me. "This is exactly why we don't get involved with mortals."

"Bunny!" Tooth scolded.

"I thought we were already past that conversation, Kangaroo!" I snapped.

"Call me Kangaroo one more time-!"

"Enough!" North bellowed, and everyone froze. North sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose to ease what seemed to be a steadily growing headache from our situation. "I agree with Jack. At this point, we do not have enough information on how Pitch is doing this. As horrible as it sounds, we are going to have to operate on his terms until we know how to defeat him."

I almost cast a smug look Bunny's direction at my small victory before I remembered exactly what argument I had won. I had just tasked myself with meeting up with the bogeyman without any sort of reinforcements while Darian's life hung in the balance. The realization crashed down on me like a ton of bricks, and I felt suddenly sick to my stomach at the thought of it.

I tried not to let the terror show on my face, but Tooth gave voice to exactly what I was thinking. "I still don't like this," she said, shaking her head. "What if something goes wrong? What if it's a trap?"

"It most likely is," North replied.

Suddenly, while watching Tooth's expression sink further into worry, a thought struck me. "I have an idea, but you're not going to like it," I said, directing that last part at Tooth.

"Just add it to the pile of things we already don't like about this situation," Bunny grumbled.

"What if Baby Tooth went with me?" I suggested. An indignant squeak from beside Tooth told me how well my idea was received. "Hear me out, okay? She's small enough that she could hide in my hoodie pocket without Pitch ever knowing she's there, and if something bad happens to me, she could try to fly back and warn you guys."

"What if she's caught?" Bunny asked. "Would you really want to risk that?"

"I'm hoping that even if Pitch does find her, he won't consider her a big enough threat worth endangering Darian's life over," I answered. There was a louder, much angrier squeak from Baby Tooth as she flew over in front of my face, her tiny hands on her hips. "Please," I begged. "I know it's asking a lot, but I would feel so much better if you were there with me. I promise, I'll do everything I can to keep you from getting hurt."

Baby Tooth continued to fume at me, but after a few seconds of contemplation, she let her shoulders sag in resignation. She looked over her shoulder at Tooth and gave an inquiring chirp.

"It's the best plan we've got," Tooth told her with a shrug.

"Not that that's saying much," Bunny muttered.

Baby Tooth turned to me to give a last affirming nod before flitting back to her post for the time being. "Thanks," I said, allowing myself a small smile.

"You should probably leave before too long," North instructed. "Pitch will not like to be kept waiting."

"I know, but if we're done here, I'd like to go check on Darian before I leave." North only dismissed me with a wave of his hand. Bunny griped about something else as I flew away, but I no longer cared.

 **Darian**

Mrs. Claus carried me down several hallways before setting me down in what appeared to be some sort of parlor. I took up a plush loveseat that sat across from a stone fireplace, a bright fire crackling inside. The floor was mostly covered by a luxurious, thick rug that seemed to be inviting me to dig my toes into it, and a grandfather clock tick-tocked away in the corner. Mrs. Claus rummaged around in a nearby cabinet before drifting back over to me with a first-aid kit and a fluffy blanket that she tossed around my shoulders.

"I-I'm not cold," I protested, despite how much I shook.

"I know, dear. It's for the shock," she said soothingly. I nodded and drew it tighter around myself, still shaking.

She set to work examining me, checking every inch for new bumps and bruises. She shined a small flashlight into my eyes, testing for concussion, and had to unwrap and rewrap my hand to treat the cuts I had reopened from straining it.

"Alright," she said, packing away the kit. "Nothing much to report. No concussion, which is extremely lucky after the falls you've had today, and your hand probably hurts like nothing else, but I think it'll be fine, too, with some ice and rest. I'll also want you to ice that bruise on your chin there. It looks like it'll be a nasty one."

Tentatively, I brushed my fingers over the sore spot from where my chin had struck the ground when I fell, wincing as I felt it already swelling.

"Physically, I think you're going to be okay, but how are you feeling?" she asked gently.

I opened my mouth to reply before realizing that there were really no words to describe the emotional turmoil going on in my head. I was frightened beyond belief at what was going on, relieved that I had survived, horrified by what I had done, disgusted at Pitch, and concerned for everyone in my vicinity. Closing my mouth, I simply shook my head.

"I thought so," said Mrs. Claus, nodding her head in understanding.

"Jamie and Sophie, are they alright?" I inquired quietly, my own voice feeling like needles scraping my throat after crying so hard.

"They're fine," she assured me, patting my uninjured hand. "Would you like to see them?"

"Not yet," I said a little too quickly. I couldn't imagine facing them after this. Though fuzzy, I could remember seeing their terrified faces as they ran away from me. What on earth do you say to someone after something like that?

"It's alright. We can take it slow." She paused a moment before asking, "Do you remember anything?"

"All of it, I think," I answered. "It's a little vague, like a dream. I feel like I'm trapped in my own body, just watching it do terrible things." I paused a moment to take a breath, tears stinging the corners of my eyes. "Sometimes I get snippets of intent, where I know what's about to happen before it does, but it was different this time. He spoke directly to me. I saw him in my head, and he…then I woke up and repeated it, and…oh, no. Is Jack in trouble?"

"For falling in love with you, you mean?" Mrs. Claus asked, an amused smile tugging at her lips. "No. He wouldn't be the first to fall for a mortal, and he certainly won't be the last."

"That's what Tooth said."

"She'd know just as well as anybody. Tooth has had her fair share of loves, mortal and otherwise. I think she even once had a thing for Jack, not that she would mention it to you," she explained.

"Really?" I asked. When I thought about it, a lot of things that she said made even more sense with this information.

Mrs. Claus nodded. "She's not the only one, though. I'd say all of the Guardians have had to face this problem at some point in their long lives. It's a lot more common among Immortals than most would like to let on, but well, just look at Greek mythology. However, as you can probably imagine, it never really ends well, so getting involved with mortals is widely discouraged."

I nodded along as she spoke, processing this information. "Tooth said something else," I mentioned after a moment. "She said that we might have a chance, but a chance at what? Do you know what she meant?"

At this, Mrs. Claus' eyebrows shot up. "Wow, you must have really made an impression on her if she told you that, though I must say, from what I've gathered about you, I'm inclined to agree."

"Not really," I muttered. "More of the other way around, actually. She saved me and Jack from falling out of the sky, and then we just talked for a little while."

"What about?"

"About Jack and I, and whether or not we should really be together," I replied.

"And what did you say?" she pressed.

I blushed, knowing what I was about to say was highly personal, but again, something about Mrs. Claus made me feel safe and at ease with almost anything. I took a deep breath and confessed, "I said that I loved him, and that no matter what danger it put me in, I wanted to be with him."

Mrs. Claus smiled. "Yes, I think Tooth might be right."

"But what did she mean?" I asked again.

Mrs. Claus took a seat beside me and began, "As you may know, Darian, there are cases, although rare, where mortals may become immortal. The Norse have Idunn's golden apples, some accomplish impossible feats and thereby become legends, and the Guardians are gifted immortality when the Man in the Moon sees a special quality in them worth protecting. There are other ways, no less difficult, of course, but you get the idea. Either you prove your worth, or the world has a specific need that only you can fulfill. Outside of this, there is no other way to become immortal, except one: marriage, or something like it. It takes a contract, a promise to love each other forever.

"Now, I know what you must be thinking. If it were that easy, why are relationships with mortals so discouraged? Well, there is a catch. Tell me, do you believe in soulmates?"

"I guess I've never given it much thought," I admitted, "but considering I'm currently at the North Pole sitting with Mrs. Claus after being possessed by the Bogeyman because I'm dating Jack Frost, I wouldn't say it's too much of a stretch."

She chuckled at this. "That's the catch. For us, at least, though I imagine it's probably the same for most other methods. Manny will only grant immortality through marriage if he considers the two to be soulmates."

"But how does he decide something like that?" I wondered.

Seemingly out of answers, Mrs. Claus only shrugged. "I can't say for sure. I guess it has something to do with proving that it's true love, doing something so great that it couldn't be anything else. In a way, I suppose it's still very similar to most other ways of proving your worth to become an Immortal, except instead of fulfilling a worldwide need, you're fulfilling a personal one."

"That sounds impossible," I muttered.

"Maybe that's the point," she replied. "As you can imagine, it discourages a lot of people."

"So, you and Tooth think Jack and I…that we might be soulmates?"

"I'd say it's a possibility," she said vaguely.

"Soulmates," I repeated, drawing the blanket tighter around me. "I just…I don't know about that."

"It's a lot to take in, I know," Mrs. Claus said soothingly, rubbing my shoulder.

"It's a nice thought," I sighed after a few moments of processing, "but after all the things I've done, how could that be true?"

"What exactly have you done to make you think that?" she wondered.

"I made a deal with Pitch," I told her. "I broke Jack's heart. I lied to his face. I got scared of getting hurt again, so I ran like the coward I am. I don't know about you, but that doesn't sound like Immortal material to me."

"But you came back," she reminded me. "Why?"

I must have taken too long to answer, because after a second or two she added, "The answer is right there, Darian. You shouldn't have to think about it."

"Because I love him," I answered almost immediately.

"Exactly," she said, smiling.

A long silence descended upon the room as I thought harder about what Mrs. Claus was saying. Me? An Immortal? While an eternity with Jack didn't sound unappealing, was that really what I wanted? To watch my friends and family grow old and pass while I remained? If I was truly Jack's soulmate, was my future already set in stone before I had even begun to live my life?

I clutched at my head in my confusion. "What do I do?"

"Nothing," Mrs. Claus replied firmly. "You're only sixteen, correct? You should have years to go before you even start thinking about forever. I wouldn't concern yourself with this, for now."

"Then, why did you tell me?" I wondered.

"You asked," she said simply. "And with everything going on, I'm sure you must be scared and confused. There's a lot you don't know about Immortals. I just thought I'd give you one less thing to be surprised about later on down the line."

"Thank you," I said. "Does Jack know?"

"Probably not. He hasn't even read the Guardians manual yet despite being one for almost three years now. You can tell him, if you want. In fact, that's probably him at the door right now," she remarked just as someone rapped sharply against the door. Mrs. Claus stood to leave.

"Wait!" I called after her as she crossed the room, and she stopped just before reaching the door. "I just have one last question: If Jack and I really are soulmates, and I managed to prove it somehow, how do you know that the Man in the Moon would grant me Immortality?"

"Hm, I guess I really don't," she answered with a shrug, "But he's done it before, so I don't see why he wouldn't again for you."

"Really? For who?"

"Me." And that was her final word on the subject. With a grin, she exited the room, and Jack came flying in.

I stood to embrace him, but it was a good thing he was fast enough to reach me first, as I ended up falling into him, having overestimated the strength of my legs. I realized that I hadn't completely quit shaking, but even as the blanket slipped off my shoulders, Jack held me so tightly that I hardly felt it. We stood like this for a long while until I grew too tired to stand, and Jack eased me gently back on the couch, wrapped the blanket around me again, and took a seat beside me.

"Are you okay?" he asked after a moment. "I mean, I know you're not, but, well, are you?"

"Honestly, no," I replied, looking down into my lap where my hands rested, one injured while the other had yet to be hurt. I managed to summon enough strength to offer Jack a small smile. "At least I didn't throw up this time."

Jack made a sound that was somewhere between a sigh of relief and a chuckle before he became serious again. It was slightly unnerving to watch, and I wished for him to smile again and laugh without a care in the world. "You're not too beat up this time, then?"

"Just a new bruise." I lifted my chin to show him, and I saw him flinch slightly at the sight.

"Let me help with that," he said immediately, bringing his hand up to my face so quickly that I winced when it made contact. "Sorry."

"It's fine. I'm just a little sore." After a moment or two to adjust to the cold, I leaned further into the touch. Jack stroked my cheek gently with his thumb, and I realized very suddenly just how tired I was. So much had happened that day, none of it good, and this was the first true moment of peace I'd had. Wrapped in a soft blanket by a warm fire with Jack numbing away the pain of my injuries, I might have fallen asleep like this on any other day.

This was not any other day, though, and I desperately wanted to avoid falling asleep, so of course, I managed to find a way to ruin the moment. "Are you really going to meet with Pitch?" I asked.

"What other choice is there?" he sighed.

"I don't know," I said, knowing full well that he could choose just not to go, but Pitch had threatened to kill me, and neither of us wanted to find out if he had only been bluffing.

"I'll have Baby Tooth with me this time, so I won't be totally alone." I nodded solemnly at this. After a moment, Jack offered up a smile. "Hey, would you rather talk about something else? Something fun?"

"Yeah," I replied. "I miss the days when we could be together without dealing with matters of life and death or the fate of the universe."

"Was there ever really such a time?" Jack teased.

"Burgess?" I offered.

"Nah," Jack dismissed. "We weren't exactly together then, and you were miserable half the time."

"Well, what about that week before Valentine's? Right after we officially started dating."

Jack nodded. "I guess that counts. So, what? Was that, like, our honeymoon phase as a couple or something? Geez, I thought that was supposed to last a little longer!"

We both laughed at that, but I couldn't help but be reminded of what Mrs. Claus had said. I wondered if I should tell Jack, but it was so wonderful to be laughing with him again that I didn't want to be the one to ruin the moment.

"I missed this," I admitted as the laughter died down.

"Me, too," Jack agreed. "But don't worry. We'll set things right."

"Do you really believe that?" I asked.

"I do. Do you?" he responded.

"I believe in you," I told him, bringing my hand up to hold the one he still held to my face. At this, Jack's smile brightened the room, but as he leaned in for a kiss, the door slammed open, and Bunny stood in the entryway. I quickly pulled away, my face burning, and Jack let his hand drop, more angry than embarrassed.

"North says it's time for you to go," Bunny said, completely unfazed. Jack's face fell, and he briefly looked back and forth between me and the door. Bunny rolled his eyes. "Don't worry. I'll be keeping an eye on her while you're gone."

"I thought the goal was not to scare her," Jack quipped. Bunny only rolled his eyes as Jack briefly turned his attention back to me, searching my face to see if I would be okay with this.

"I'll be fine," I assured him.

"Are you sure?"

I nodded. "I'm sure. I mean, I'm in Santa's workshop right now. How cool is that?" We shared a laugh, and Jack pressed a quick kiss to my forehead. "I love you," I told him. "Be safe."

"I will," he promised before disappearing out the door.

 **Jack**

It was around midnight when I arrived in Burgess by portal, keeping one snow globe in my hoodie pocket for the return trip right alongside where Baby Tooth hid. I had to drop Jamie and Sophie off at their house first. I had protested at first, not wanting them to be anywhere near Pitch, but they needed to return eventually, and Jamie pointed out that if something went wrong, it would be much easier for Baby Tooth to fly to their house where they could use one of their snow globes to warn the Guardians sooner.

The dark hole was exactly where I remembered it being, and I hesitated at the edge of it for a few moments, staring down at the seemingly infinite blackness below. Baby Tooth gave a fearful chirp. "I don't like this either," I agreed, "but it's the only option we have." Before she could suddenly change her mind about coming with me, I leapt into the hole, allowing myself to sink all the way to the bottom.

I could feel eyes on me as soon as I entered the labyrinth, though I couldn't see anything inhabiting it. Nightmares, I assumed, hiding in the shadows. There were more than I remembered there being from last time. Pitch must have been busy lately. He was regaining power far too quickly for my liking.

I thought about calling out to Pitch, letting him know I had arrived and asking him to show himself, but I was hardly in the mood for any sort of formality, and I wanted to appear like I had control of the situation, to not give him the satisfaction of me asking any more of him than was necessary. I trudged through the labyrinth silently, all on my own, taking a wrong turn here and there but making good time, nonetheless. I found him by his globe, observing the lights, occasionally bending forward to take a closer look at one before nodding and moving on. He didn't turn around as I approached, but he acknowledged my presence. "Ah, Jack. It took you a lot longer than I thought you would. How's Darian doing?" His back was to me, but I could practically hear him grinning smugly.

"Why, you-!" I charged forward, but Pitch held up a warning hand and glared darkly at me over his shoulder.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you. Did you forget what was at stake here?" he scolded.

I gritted my teeth and forced myself to stay put. "How are you doing it?" I grumbled.

Pitch began pacing around to the other side of the globe. "Getting straight to the point, I see, but what about this deal I was promised?"

"We'll discuss that after you explain what you've done to Darian."

"Very well, then," he said, walking around so that we finally came face-to-face. "I'm sure you recall that day at the school, after Darian neglected to hold up her end of our bargain?"

"I remember. Get on with it."

"So serious today, Jack. It doesn't suit you," Pitch complained, much to my irritation. "As you know, the amount of Nightmare Sand in Darian would have killed her if I hadn't removed it, but as I expected, nobody noticed the very small amount that I left behind."

"What?" I exclaimed.

"It was an insignificant amount at first, but if left unchecked, fear can grow and spread so easily. Surely, you noticed that she steadily became more anxious in the following weeks?"

When I thought hard about it, I recalled Darian becoming very jumpy and more withdrawn than usual. I wished I had paid more attention then.

"As she is more susceptible to my magic, the fear within her grew exponentially, and the funny thing about humans is that they so often make their decisions based on fear; they let it control them. In this case, more literally than figuratively. Not to mention that dreams are already connected to the mind, and the same holds true for Nightmares, so I had an easy way in," Pitch explained.

"So, what you're saying is…because of the Nightmare Sand infecting her, Darian's so afraid that you can actually take control of her?" I said slowly, trying to wrap my head around this concept.

"Precisely," he confirmed. "Neat trick, isn't it?"

"It's sick," I spat.

"Well, if all goes well here tonight, I shouldn't have to do it anymore, thank goodness. It's quite exhausting." Pitch leaned against the globe as if to prove how tired he was, but the action was far too casual to be genuine. "Now, about this deal…"

"What do you want, Pitch?" I grumbled.

He pretended to think on it for a moment, drawing the meeting out once again so that he could savor my misery, before finally answering, "Free reign."

"Absolutely not," I replied immediately.

"Really, now. I think it's a perfectly reasonable request. All I want is to be able to go about my business without being hunted down, without any supervision or restrictions. You Guardians get to go around doing whatever you want all the time," he said.

"Well, we Guardians also haven't attempted to rule the world or murder children," I shot back.

"Fair point," he conceded, "but I'm not seeking to do either right this moment, unless, of course, you refuse." He rose again to his full height to look down on me, a wicked grin splitting his face. "Is this not a fair trade for Darian's life?"

I gripped my staff tightly, wanting nothing more than to knock out a couple more of his teeth, but I was paralyzed, powerless in this situation, unable to do anything without endangering Darian's life. "I'll have to discuss this with the other Guardians," I muttered after a long bout of tense silence.

"Of course," Pitch agreed. "In fact, I'll even give you until Easter to make your final decision."

"How generous of you," I said sarcastically.

"Not really. Until that day, you have my word that I will not lay a finger on Darian, but I believe that should be enough time for you to figure out that I don't have to. After all, that Nightmare sand isn't going anywhere on its own."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Like I said, you'll soon find out," he answered smugly. He began turning his attention back to the globe.

"Is that it, then?" I asked, itching to fly out of the labyrinth. As weird as it sounds, the longer I stayed in one place in there, the more unfamiliar and sinister everything seemed to become, and I was starting to become extremely uncomfortable, due to both my surroundings and my conversation with Pitch that I felt had dragged on far too long.

"I suppose that just about covers it, but one last reminder before you go, if you don't mind." He knew, of course, that I did mind, and the false politeness was just another way of irritating me. "If you do refuse, if you do decide to let Darian die, don't think for even a second that I'll stop there. There are hundreds of children out there that are just like her, extremely susceptible to my magic. Be sure to consider how your decision affects them, as well," he warned darkly.

"I'll keep that in mind," I growled, when all I really wanted to do was throttle him for the threat he'd just made. He was crossing all sorts of lines here, and the worst part was that he knew that he could get away with it. Without saying any sort of farewell, as I didn't feel that Pitch even deserved such a simple courtesy, I flew off, winding my way around staircases and cages until, several minutes later, I rediscovered the exit.

I took a minute to rest by the familiar pond and gather my thoughts, and Baby Tooth finally flitted out of my pocket to breathe in the fresh night air. After a minute or two, she landed on my shoulder and squeaked inquisitively. "Yeah, I'm okay," I replied, "but I don't like this. Not one bit."

 **(Sorry this is going up so late. Midterms hit me hard, and I rewrote a bit of the middle section. Yes, I know, I went with the stupid soulmate trope, but I'm hoping it's not exactly like you've seen it before. I couldn't fit in the full explanation of how it works here without it sounding unnatural, but it will be elaborated on in the next chapter. Until then, I'm interested to see how you guys respond to this one. Remember to favorite, follow, and review if you like it! I'm actually getting really close to finally finishing this story, and I can't wait to get it all up! See you soon!)**


End file.
